Naraku no Hana
by Hieda no Akyuu
Summary: The outside world has recently discovered a new energy source that has made gasoline and its adverse effects obsolete; however, a few years after its implementation into Earth's society, holes in the Hakurei Dai-Kekkai of Gensokyou have been discovered. Hakurei Reimu, Yakumo Yukari, and co. must venture out to the outside world to investigate and stop this new energy source.
1. ACR

**Well, this is awkward.**

**Introductions, yes, introductions...thanks for stopping by and reading. Hope you enjoy.**

**Now that we're done with introductions, allow me to explain my situation...**

**"Main reason for removal: "Not allowed: interactive, chat/script, real person,**  
**mst, and etc."**

**The above story has been removed because it violated the guideline detailed on**  
**the upload page."**

**...was what my email showed me on the afternoon of October 3rd, 2013.**

**If this is the first time you have met me as a writer, I was writing another story by the name of Lacrimaeque Laetitia Cantus: Exposition from April 1st, 2012 until the date written above. It has been since removed due to the above stated violations. I have made a video and put it on Youtube explaining this situation in further detail, but that's all I will say. So, in order to replace the death of LLC, I will be instead working on other works here on Fanfiction. In the meantime, I'd like to find other sites that will host LLC as an alternative to Fanfiction. Perhaps I can find one - I already have a backup, but in case there is a more widely known site that I can find or can be referred to.**

**This time, this story will (hopefully) follow all the guidelines that I've read. I hope I haven't missed any. Wouldn't it suck to have ****_another_**** story removed from this wonderful site?**

**Thanks for reading,**

**-Akyuu no Joshu**

* * *

"Come, Reimu. We must leave at once."

"Oh geez, Yukari! What gives, seriously, you only just told me about this two hours ago! ! !"

Morning has descended upon the Hakurei Shrine, the shrine that sits between the border of Gensokyou, the Illusionary Land, and the outside world, a border known as the Hakurei Dai-Kekkai. Mimicking a 17th century Shinto shrine from Tokugawa Japan, the East Asian piece of architecture is complete with its own cookie-cutter stone walkway, a grove of apple trees surrounding the premises, a smaller grove of sakura trees behind the main shrine building, a smaller shrine beyond the sakura tree grove the size of a birdhouse, a large warehouse, and a donation box that is presently empty. A large granite staircase leads up to the stone walkway that in turn leads to the front of the main shrine, where the donation box sits in patient wait of donations, and at the top of this staircase stands a 25-meter-tall red Japanese arch, gracefully welcoming any guests like a gentle giant. The sunny morning day, dotted with a few stray clouds that drift where the winds take them, pours its warm rays down on the face of the sleepy and yawning shrine maiden of the Hakurei shrine, who emerges still in her white silk nightgown from within the shrine, her long, silky but messy dark brown hair sweeping against her waist.

"No donations again today..."

"After briefing you on this most recent incident, the first thing you concern yourself with is your donation box?"

"Hey, it's part of my chores, leave me alone. I never saw you run a shrine before."

"But I have taken care of you and this shrine when your mother was away with shrine matters in the past."

"That's different - and you did a terrible job of it, since youkai can't run shrines."

"And why are you still in your nightclothes? Change, now."

A tall woman with ridiculously long straw-blonde hair that reaches almost all the way down to her lower thighs gently swings her feet from a hanging abyss-like tear in the middle of the air some two feet above the stone walkway before the foot of the shrine building. She wears a long white heavy long-sleeved dress with a frontal purple tabard ornately decorated with large yin-yang emblems on both sides, and a light purple frilled hat with a red string bow sits on top of the mountain of straw blonde hair.

"It seems I must explain our circumstances once again, for it appears to me that you are not taking this seriously."

"Serious or not, it'll just be like any other incident, right? Just find out who's behind all this and beat up anyone along the way. S'like what we've always done, right?

Yakumo Yukari scratches her head exasperatedly.

"And now is the time that I realize my words from earlier this morning have been spoken in vain..."

"Yeesh, chill out for a bit, your age is showing. I think Cirno was hanging out around here somewhere with the others, maybe I should get her to make some icepacks real quick -"

_**BONK!**_

"Owwwwww! ! ! ! Hey, hey, what was that for? ! You can't just be throwing around fans like that, we haven't even agreed to a danmaku battle!"

The fully dressed Hakurei Reimu, Shrine Maiden of Paradise, rubs her forehead with both hands as she watches the sukima youkai walk up to her and retrieve her thrown fan by opening a small gap underneath it and catch it out of the air as it falls out of another gap above her left hand. The miko is wearing a red knee-length skirt, a red sleeveless blouse with a small yellow necktie, and detached white sleeves with small frills on each end. Two red hairtubes act as Reimu's sideburns, and a graceful red and white hairbow keeps her hair in place.

"Come. We must discuss the situation once more, as your carelessness has gotten the better of you this morning."

"Like I said, I already know what's going on!"

"Oh? Then tell me what I talked about when I woke you up the first time."

"..."

Reimu gives an awkward smile, averting her gaze from the piercing, sharp gaze of her youkai mentor.

"Point proven. Come, sit."

Yukari leads Reimu into her own shrine, entering the tatami mat living room. They seat themselves at the kotatsu.

"Pay attention, for I will not repeat this again."

"But we're going together, aren't we?"

"Listen anyway. This incident involves the safety of all of Gensokyou."

"Oh great...it's gonna be a long one...God, I hate those..."

"Ran and Chen have reported back to me earlier this week, stating that there are areas of rapidly thinning magic in the Hakurei Dai-Kekkai."

"Can't you fix it?"

"We have already run diagnostics and have determined that repairs are not currently possible from within Gensokyou."

"Damn it...we have to go to the outside? Of all things...ughhhh..."

"Cannot be helped. We are to venture to the outside world and see what is happening there to determine why the Dai Kekkai is dissolving."

"So how serious are the thinning areas? And how are they thinning?"

"They are not too severe at the moment, but we cannot assume their rates of disintegration are to remain the way they are. We have ample time to find answers."

"And how much is 'ample time'?"

"I estimate half a year."

"So we don't have to go out today. That's goo-"

"We are leaving."

Reimu clicks her tongue irritably.

"Damn."

"Keep listening, Reimu. We have a few leads in the outside world that may explain the Dai Kekkai's degradation."

"I'm listening, I'm listening..."

Reimu peels a manjuu from the manjuu bowl on the kotatsu.

"The outside world has discovered a new source of energy for their society. They are now using it for transportation, fuel, and other utility needs, but the byproduct that is manufactured from usage of this new energy is completely harmless to their society."

"...not really computing here."

"Reimu, I have taken you to the outside world once before, have I not?"

"Yeah, but that was so long ago that I hardly remember. Just the shrine in the outside world, or whatever."

"But do you remember those vehicles that the humans from the outside used as their mode of transportation?"

"...maybe...?"

"Those were called 'cars'. They have a variety of these 'cars', but the vast majority of them used an energy source called 'gasoline' in order to operate. It is their form of 'magic', should we make a parallel to Gensokyou."

"Right, yeah, I remember that part."

"Now, this new energy has replaced gasoline, which previously hurt the outside world's environment due to the byproducts that gasoline emitted from its usage. Apparently, it is scientifically proven to emit virtually none of these harmful byproducts, which previously had harmed the outside world's environment."

Reimu just stares at Yukari, nodding her head like a bobble head figure.

"What strikes me as rather eerie is that those byproducts, which humans from the outside called emissions, were said to be causing the ozone layer of the outside world to thin. Before this new energy was discovered, there were allegedly holes appearing in the ozone layer."

"So what you're saying is that what's happening to the Dai Kekkai is kind of like what was happening in the outside."

"Precisely. Now that gasoline is no longer in widespread use, the allegations of their ozone layer becoming damaged have largely subsided. Around the same time, their new energy source is put into widespread use, for commercial, domestic, and federal utility. And now, some few years later..."

"We have this."

Yukari nods as she accepts a piece of manjuu from Reimu and pops it in her mouth.

"The rate at which the barrier is dissolving may not seem alarming at first, but if only a few years' progress can already demonstrate this much damage, we must act now. This may be the longest incident you will have to settle, Reimu."

"I can _see_ that..."

Reimu irritably finishes her tea from her teacup.

"And lemme tell you somethin', Yukari, I ain't thrilled about it."

"You are not supposed to be."

"How many times have I heard _that_ now..."

Reimu sets down her teacup.

"Okay, now that we know our situation, what now? What's our game plan?"

"Our foremost objective is to venture out to the other side. We must investigate this new energy that the outside world is using to run its society. The humans believe that it has virtually no detrimental effect on their environment, but looking at the chronology of the past few years, its byproducts more than likely have a detrimental effect on Gensokyou and the barrier."

"Plus, you can't ever have a completely safe fuel source. Theoretically impossible."

"I am surprised you know a bit of science, Reimu. I thought you were not the type."

"Nah, just repeating what Patchouli said. I've hung out at her library with Marisa and Remilia and the others enough to pick up on a few things they talk about."

Reimu glances over to her shrine fireplace.

"If you light a fire, it gives you warmth and light. But if you mishandle the fire, it'll burn your house down, and burn you, no less. That's the risk with using fires as fuel. Same goes for anything that we call fuel, here or in the outside."

Yukari chuckles.

"Don't laugh at me, Yukari, you're thinking that I'm normally dumb, aren't you?"

"No, no, quite the opposite."

"Now you're complementing me? Get outta here..."

Reimu bites into a sweet rice cracker.

"Yeah, okay, and then? We research this thing, then what?"

"Find a way to prevent it from harming the Dai Kekkai. Or, if need be, repair the Dai Kekkai from the outside."

"Is that even possible? I really don't think you can fix a barrier constructed from within Gensokyou from the outside world."

"But this is a problem that is likely to be affecting the barrier from the outside. Perhaps the solution, too, lies beyond the barrier."

"I guess. Then when will we be leaving? And will we be coming back?"

"I expect that we should be able to return to Gensokyou whenever we wish. And we will be leaving very soon."

"And by very soon, exactly...?"

"In a few minutes."

"Goddamn it, Yukari!"

"Why? What is the problem?"

"I was going to go out and do some chores, dang it! And then you have to show up and throw a wrench into my schedule -"

"Please save me the petty lies, Reimu, you did not have anything planned today."

"H-How do you know? !"

"Today is Saturday. On Saturday, all you do is sit on the front porch and drink tea and eat rice crackers and manjuu, much like you are now."

Reimu shoves the rest of the rice cracker into her mouth hastily.

"Ah waahant eehinn aahyhinnnng! ! !"

"Please finish eating before speaking, Reimu. That is quite rude."

Reimu swallows.

"Who are you, my nanny? !"

"Basically, yes, since your mother's passing."

They simultaneously glance at the portrait of the former shrine's miko hanging above the fireplace on the reinforced wooden support beam. Inscribed on the frame is the name Hakurei Miko.

"You would not want your mother to scold you for not doing your duty, no? Then come."

"H-Hey, don't bring Okaa-sama into this! ! And where are we going?"

"We must prepare for our venture to the outside, of course."

"But prepare what? Don't we just need to go as is?"

Yukari gives Reimu a funny look, having stood up and walking towards Reimu's bedroom.

"It is not as if we will be flying above the clouds for only a few minutes and returning. We will be interacting with the outside world's society, Reimu."

"Oh God..."

"Bear with it. The outside world is not as frightening as you may think."

"It's not that I think the outside's scary, it's just big ass hassle!"

"Save your petty talk, come to your bedroom, we must change."

"Change? Our clothes? But why? And I don't have any clothes from the outside, what're you talking about?"

"I have acquired some pieces of clothing for us to wear. Now hurry, we must not waste this daytime."

"I'm coming, I'm coming, yeesh...oh, and by the way, about that new energy or whatever, what's it called?"

"Serenity."

* * *

"Wow, I can't get over how surprisingly comfortable these are. I thought they'd be really stuffy, but..."

"These were very expensive, so take care not to ruin them."

Hakurei Reimu and Yakumo Yukari stand together, reviewing their new clothes. Reimu is wearing a gray jacket over a black tank top and a red-white belt that keeps her tan shin-length jeans up. Yukari is wearing a thick purple zip-up sweater with a beaver-fur-lined collar that hides her yellow long-sleeved collared shirt printed with a yin-yang where the breast pocket should be and dark navy Levi jeans. Needless to say, they still maintain their usual headpiece accessories.

"Maybe I should just start wearing these?"

"You cannot. When you are in Gensokyou, you must wear the traditional garb of your shrine."

"Blah blah blah. Let's get going already. Oh, I meant to ask earlier, is there anyone else who'll be coming with us?"

"Not at the moment, no, why?"

"I dunno, just wondering."

"We will request the assistance of our acquaintances when we must."

"Mkay then."

"Oh, before we depart, I must speak with you a few things to keep in mind..."

"...which are...?"

"Firstly, you must remember at all times that our powers will be significantly decreased. It will be much more difficult to invoke our powers due to the lack of belief in magic in the outside world."

"Sigh...you never told me about that! This'll suck...so what's that gonna mean, then? Can I, like, still use my powers at all, or what?"

"You will, but it will take considerably more energy and will to do."

"Define 'considerably'."

"Hmmm...perhaps a rough estimate will be being only able to fight with danmaku for half an hour as opposed to two?"

"You don't actually think that I'm that weak, do you?"

"It is for the sake of example."

"Yeah, _okay_..."

Reimu glares at Yukari with an anger vein popping on her scalp.

"Secondly, we must overcome the language barrier in the outside world. Come here, Reimu."

Yukari beckons Reimu to come forth.

"Huh? Why? Don't they speak Japanese out there, too?"

"Not where we will be going."

Reimu approaches Yukari and turns so that the back of her head is facing the youkai.

"Where will we be going, then?"

"A land known to the outside world as 'the United States of America'."

"Amerika?"

"Something like that, yes."

"What do they speak there?"

"English."

"Eeigo? I've heard of that language...but I heard it's difficult to learn."

"It is quite a language, no doubt, but you need not worry about the learning process."

The tall sukima youkai opens a gap right behind Reimu's hand and inserts one delicate finger. Reimu gasps, then immediately curses as a sharp jab pokes through her brain.

"Ow, fuck! What the hell was that? !"

"Did it hurt? I apologize."

"It just felt really weird, not necessarily hurt, but still, you should've warned me of this beforehand!"

"My apologies. I just manipulated the boundary of your skill in speaking and comprehending English. You should be fluent in English now."

Yukari clears her throat.

"You do understand this, don't you?"

Reimu's black eyes widen in surprise. Foreign words jump off Yukari's tongue, words that she has never heard, but yet words that she understands flawlessly and perfectly.

"Yeah...this is English, huh? It's...it's..."

"Strange, yes. Mechanically and structurally, English is much different from Japanese."

"And _this _is the language that the majority of the outside world uses as an international tongue? What the hell are those humans thinking?"

"You can ask them once we depart. Now come."

Yukari tosses her right hand upwards in front of her, and a tear rips apart underneath the red archway at the top of the stone steps of the Hakurei Shrine, the size of double doors to a mansion.

"Can we come back soon? I don't feel like running around in the outside for too long."

"We will be back by sundown, so do not fret."

Sighing, the contemporary shrine maiden phases through the gap, and the two women are vanished from the shrine grounds.

* * *

"..."

"..."

The two women, readjusting their headgear, find themselves in the middle of a very full parking lot. Cars are parked everywhere around them, and only a few narrow strips of asphalt are free of these vehicles.

"Are these what they call cars?"

"Yes. It seems we have stumbled upon what is called a parking lot."

"Parking lot...right, it's where they keep their cars when they're away somewhere."

Reimu looks around. Conveniently enough, no one has noticed their sketchy entrance into this world.

"Remember, Reimu. Do not use your powers needlessly. This world has forsaken its belief in magic and the supernatural long ago. We must maintain that sentiment whilst we are here."

"Sucks for them."

"Are you hungry, Reimu? You didn't eat breakfast yet, have you?"

"A few rice crackers, that's about it. You want us to keep speaking English, or what's the deal?"

"It's alright if we speak Japanese while we are alone. Of course, not everyone in America speaks Japanese."

"I know that. This isn't Japan, I can tell already even if you didn't tell me before."

"So are you hungry or no?"

"Yes, yes, geez! Better to work on a full stomach than on empty one, Mom already told you that, no?"

"Of course I remember. Come, there seems to be a restaurant over yonder."

Yukari points to across the parking lot, and there hangs a neon sign that depicts the words _Olive Garden_.

"Sounds delicious already. Oh, but how're we gonna pay?"

Yukari pulls out a thick wad of bills from her purse in her jeans' back pocket.

"I never go unprepared, Reimu. You should know this."

"...don't make me off myself. That's the most amount of money I've ever seen at one time. But where'd you even get that?"

"...how I acquired our funds is irrelevant."

"You stole it, didn't you?"

"..."

"You gapped it out of someone, didn't you?"

"...not..._someone_..."

"You still stole it, didn't you?"

"...it is not as if anyone will notice..."

Reimu pulls on Yukari's cheek.

"Even if you had to do it, that doesn't sit well with me. I'll overlook it this time around, since there's no way we can get around without money."

They walk across the parking lot and stroll into the waiting lobby of the restaurant. As soon as Reimu open the glass door, she is hit by the mouthwatering aromas of butter, roasting scallop, scampi shrimp, and freshly baked and seasoned breadsticks.

"...I love you, Yukari."

"Thank me once we have eaten."

A restaurant attendant, neatly dressed in a business suit, notices the two new guests and walks up to them, behind a tall wooden podium.

"How many, ladies?"

Her voice attracts Reimu's and Yukari's attention.

"Er, is she talking to us?"

"It appears so. Let me handle this."

Yukari approaches the waitress.

"Excuse me? My apologies."

"That's okay. How many in your party, ma'am?"

"Two, just two."

"Understood. I do believe we have a small table for two available, so please follow me."

Yukari glances over to Reimu and beckons with a tilt of her head to follow, and the waitress guides them to their table. Reimu cannot help but look around wondrously, taking in all the scents and sights of a restaurant from the outside.

"Here is your table, and your waiter will be with you shortly. Have a good meal!"

The neatly dressed waitress departs, leaving behind two laminated menus. Reimu and Yukari sit down at their small table, and Yukari picks up the menu to browse through it. Reimu is too preoccupied with looking around the restaurant.

"Wow...are all restaurants in the outside like this, Yukari?"

"Not all. This is evidently a rather high-class restaurant, one that people would attend on a weekly or monthly basis."

Reimu also realizes that they are the center of attention of many people who are seated around them.

"Ugh...I just noticed that there're lots of people looking at us..."

"It's not obvious to you, Reimu?"

"What's obvious?"

"Fufufu..."

Yukari chuckles lightly.

"What's so funny, all of a sudden?"

"I suppose I cannot blame you, with your lack of being around very many people. They believe that you are quite beautiful, Reimu."

"..."

The miko's cheeks redden all so slightly.

"...me, beautiful? What're they thinking..."

"But there is no denying it. We are very attractive women by this society's standards. I suppose I should have warned you of this prior."

"Yeah, you should have. I don't like lots of people just sitting there gawking at me and whispering about me...if we were in Gensokyou, I'd've smacked some sense into them with my gohei..."

"Well, in any case, hurry up and choose what you want."

"...right, food, food."

Reimu opens up her menu.

"...Yukari..."

"...yes?"

"...is it possible..."

"...mhm?"

"...for me to order..."

"...I'm listening..."

"...everything on here?"

"No."

"...but we have so much money -"

"No."

"...but..."

"No."

Reimu lays her head on the table depressingly.

"...what I would do for food like this back home..."

"Decide on something quickly, Reimu, our waiter will come by any time now."

"Okay, okay. Ummm..."

* * *

Nighttime.

The two women from another world are walking down the streets lit by nightlights, streetlights, and car headlights.

"Man...after we ate lunch, we spent the next seven hours trying to look up stuff on this serenity thing at that library, and what do we find? Absolutely frickin' nothing...jolly."

"The fact that we have discovered nothing about serenity is knowledge as well, Reimu."

"Oh yeah? What's it tell us?"

"That serenity is a closely guarded secret. We have only found general information, information we had already known with our own extremely limited exposure to the existence of this energy - its discovery, its first years of refinement and commercialization, et cetera. It is strange as to why the humans who inhabit this world do not question why the background of this serenity is as obscure as it is."

"Personally, I'm not surprised."

"Surprised by what?"

"By the fact that people aren't saying anything about it."

"Why is that?"

Reimu glances over at Yukari to her right side, her arms crossed up and over her head with her interlocked fingers pressing against the back of her head.

"Isn't it obvious? Serenity is a fuel source that, from what we've researched or read or whatever, provides almost maximum efficiency and maximum output with minimal waste as it's being processed. All these cars here, they run on serenity, and they all have drastically increased capabilities compared to when they were running on gas or whatever. People don't have to buy as much of this serenity stuff, plus it's so much cheaper to begin with anyway, since its manufacture is so dirt cheap too."

They walk across a large street intersection, the corner of which sports a Shell gas station.

"Gas was apparently a huge part of people's lives here, but eventually it got too costly to keep as a part of their lives for much longer, due to its short supply and high extraction and refinement costs. So when serenity was discovered, all the problems that gas gave people here disappeared overnight. People aren't going to complain or question something that helps them so much. It's like if someone were to donate over a year's worth of yen to me in my box - it's the same concept."

Yukari gives Reimu a funny look.

"I hope you realize that wasn't the best example you could have chosen to present your case."

"Shut it. You even think it's a good example, admit it."

"I plead the Fifth."

"Huh...?"

"Never mind."

The zooms of car engines zip past them in the evening.

"So are we going back to the same place where we arrived, then?"

"Yes. We must go back from whence we came."

"Makes sense. And it's nighttime, so not many people'll be around. How far away are we?"

"Should be across this next street."

"Oh, there's the light. C'mon."

They cross the next intersection and step foot on the same parking lot.

"We'll find out more about serenity tomorrow. Good work for today, Reimu."

"I just wanna go back home and sleep...I'm tired...you wanna crash at my place for tonight?"

"I shall accept your invitation, then."

Yukari suddenly wraps her arms around Reimu and pulls her close, giggling heartily.

"O-Oi, Yukari, the hell? !"

"I am excited ~ how long has it been since you have last slept with me?"

"S-S-Stop, you're making it sound weird."

"Ooooh? So you swing _that_ way?"

"N-NO!"

Then, both Reimu and Yukari freeze, killing their gaits. Their laughter vanishes as they begin to glance around them, as if looking for something.

"You feel that, Yukari?"

"But of course."

"What is it?"

"Some kind of strong magical signature, that is for sure."

"But you said this world doesn't believe in magic. So why are we sensing a magical source nearby?"

"That is the problem, no?"

"It almost feels like the magic is hostile. Am I crazy for thinking that?"

"This may be a magic we are not yet aware of. This world may not believe in magic, but there is nothing to suggest it does not exist here nonetheless. Be on guard, Reimu - we will not be able to leave until we identify this source and ascertain that it cannot follow us back home."

"I hear you."

This stinging, heated signature that they sense is growing slowly in intensity, but growing nonetheless. Reimu and Yukari take refuge behind a black brick building, next to a nailed signpost that boasts the words _Skypark Animal Hospital_.

"I think it's resonating from within the building complex."

"I believe so as well. Follow me, and close behind. Prepare to use your powers if need be."

Once the source of the strange energy is located, Yukari and Reimu inch themselves across the parking lot into the open office complex. They pass water ponds, fountains, and plenty of foliage and offices along the way.

"To our left."

"Look!"

In the middle of the outdoor park wedged in between three office buildings, a dim, colorless pale light gleams, partially illuminating the darkness within the office complex. Two artificial ponds and plenty of ferns and small trees surround the light.

"No doubt this is the source."

"But what's it supposed to be, even?"

They draw nearer to the pale light. As they do, the shape of the object emitting the light etches itself into view. A jewel-like trinket, taking the image of a dull white water drop, hangs in the air, levitating in its own power.

"...what is a magic source like this doing here? And what're we gonna do with it?"

"I have not the slightest clue. We shall take it for the time being, as I am interested to study this...thing."

"You sure? We don't know anything about it. What if it's dangerous?"

"We will not know unless we act."

Yukari approaches the small jewel and holds out her hand to grab it -

_**PFFFFTTT!**_

"A-Aghhh! ! !"

Reimu only sees the small splash of blood hit the smooth cement walkway as she shouts out in alarm and rushes to her companion to assist.

"Yukari! !"

Yukari is biting on her lip to suppress the pain as she checks her wound. A small hole stares back at Reimu and Yukari, punctured cleanly through Yukari's right palm.

"It's not serious, but I have lost control of this hand...be careful, Reimu."

"Hey, hey, don't be runnin' now, ya hear?"

The two girls look up quickly. Out of the opposing darkness of the evening, around the corners of the office buildings, walk a group of six men, heavily clothed in winter garb and makeshift turbans tied from plain white t-shirts. They slowly approach the jewel and the two ladies.

Five of the men have their arms up, holding strange metal contraptions in their hands and pointing them directly at the women.

Glock 17's, all equipped with Gemtech Multimount suppressors.

The only man who is not pointing his handgun at Reimu and Yukari, presumably the ringleader of the group, reaches them and the jewel first. A lit cigarette is pursed between his loose lips.

"You two seem like only bystanda's, dunno wutcha doin' yerselves either."

"Look at 'em. They're only just sluts, they don't know what the fuck they're touching. Probably think it's some magical floatin' piece 'a jewelry or some shit."

"Tanner, shut the fuck up before I pop some caps in the back 'a yer head."

"My bad, my bad~"

The ringleader grabs the jewel and deposits it into his inner coat pocket.

"This was a pretty easy job fer tonight, gents. Let's get the fuck outta here."

"But dude, what about them?"

One of the Glock-wielding men waves his weapon at the two women. Yukari's hand is still bleeding.

"What 'bout 'em?"

"Well, y'know, we can't just let 'em go!"

"Why not?"

"They'll rat out on us! Y'all know how this goes in this system, if anyone sees 'em jewels 'r whateva, there ain't no way they'll go back ta livin' normally! They'll want in on a piece 'a dis shit too, ya know!"

"Bro, he's got a point. They might seem like they're all harmless 'n all, just lookin' like ordinary bitches wandering around in the middle 'a the evening, but you can't trust 'em. I don't."

"Then waddy'all wanna do? I sure as hell didn't come expectin' ta have ta take hostages."

Reimu's hand inches to her back pocket, where a few ofuda she has prepared sit, ready to be launched.

"_Don't do it, Reimu. Not until it's absolutely necessary._"

"_They're gonna kill us otherwise, Yukari, can't you tell? !_"

"I never asked either of y'all ta talk, so shut up, ya damn tramps!"

The ringleader barks at Yukari and Reimu, who only return cold stares back at him.

"Just waste 'em. I ain't takin' no hostages here, eitha."

"But if we kill 'em, they'll know we were here. They'll be lookin' fer us."

"Goddamn it, man, if only those bitches weren't here, wouldn't be so fucking complicated..."

Then, the ringleader, taking his cigarette out of his mouth and flicking it into a nearby ashtray that sits above a wastebasket, turns swiftly and raises his G17, resting the iron sights on Reimu's forehead.

"Sorry 'bout this, ladies. But a man's gotta find a way to live."

And before Reimu can even touch her ofuda, the man's index finger is already pulling back the trigger.

_**PTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!**_

The thundercrack of a fired bullet reverberates throughout the small crevice between the office buildings. Reimu freezes her left arm, which is about to throw her glowing ofuda, as she, Yukari, and the masked men watch the ringleader fall backwards onto the cement walkway. His suppressed pistol tumbles out of his hand and onto the nearby grass, and wet blood drips out of his right eye, through his makeshift turban mask and onto the ground.

The men, seeing their leader fall dead so suddenly, are thrown into a panic.

"W-Who did that? ! Who killed 'im? !"

"Wasn't us, dude! That shot was unsuppressed, we all got silencers!"

"I saw a shot from behind those two! The muzzle flash came from there! ! !"

One of the men points behind Reimu and Yukari into the relative darkness of the alleyway behind them.

"Ya sure? !"

"Y-Yeah!"

"Then just light that fucker up! He can't've gone far! ! !"

The men raise their weapons in desperation and fear and begin popping shots towards the darkness. Reimu shoves Yukari down low and keeps her ofuda still in her hands at the first sign of fire directed towards them.

"What the hell are those weapons? I've never seen anything like those, are they what humans here in the outside use to do battle?"

"It certainly seems that way. They are...very dangerous..."

Reimu glances at Yukari's immobilized hand, whose bleeding Yukari has managed to stop.

"I can _see _that..."

The masked men cease fire, having ejected half of their ammunition. The bullet casings litter the ground and grass around them.

"C'mon, we can't stay here. Someone grab that jewel and let's fuckin' ditch this place. This whole job is sketch now."

One of them stoops over the dead body of the ringleader to rummage through his coat for the jewel, but before his hand can touch the body, something whirls out of the darkness. A gleam of moonlight is all the men and women can see before it plunges into the forehead of the man who is about to retrieve the jewel.

"Y-Yo, the fuck happened to you? !"

"Holy shit, he's dead too! He's still the-"

_**PTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!**_ _**PTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!**_ _**PTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! PTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!**_

Three more shots, methodically and rhythmically fired, erupt from the darkness and sink into the heads of the remaining men, with the fourth piercing the right kneecap of the last man standing. As the dead men fall, the quiet beats of boots is barely drowned out by the gargles of pain from the sole survivor whose kneecap is now horribly mangled and broken. Reimu and Yukari turn to the darkness, and walking out into the moonlight comes a lone teenage girl. Sweeping hair, short business skirt, white dress shirt with a popped collar, and a black formal jacket and auburn necktie.

She wears an eyepatch over her right eye, the faint image of a yin-yang printed into it where the eye should be, and she holds a Colt M1911 with a smoking muzzle in her left hand. Heavily shrouded by the evening darkness, this mysterious girl strides across the grass onto the walkway, standing over the man whose kneecap she has just shot out.

"Arggghhhh! ! ! ! Y-Y-You b-bitch! ! ! Fuuuuu - ! ! ! !"

The wounded man, realizing he has dropped his gun in pain, grovels on the ground and gropes for it, but another shot rings out, and he freezes, watching the gun skip across the cement, out of his reach.

"Face me."

"Huh? !"

Having no choice in the matter, the masked man turns to face this eyepatched girl who points her M1911 at him.

"Who sent you?"

"What?"

"Who sent you?"

"A-And why should I tell you t-that? !"

"Because I might let you go if you tell me."

"Y-Y-You will? !"

"I'm listening."

"T-T-The A.A.H.W.! They told us to get it for 'em!"

"Oh, okay. Alright then, thanks."

_**PTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!**_

The seventh and final bullet in the girl's magazine plummets into the man's cranium, and he, too, becomes still and lifeless. The eyepatch girl, confirming the kill, flicks the bottom of her pistol to her right to toss the released and empty magazine away, slaps a fresh magazine into the grip, and racks the slide. She then holsters her Colt in the leather pistol carrier on her belt underneath her coat, kneels next to the man to whom she has thrown her pocket knife to retrieve it, pulling it out cleanly from the head and wiping the blood on the dead man's shirt, and kneels over the ringleader's body to recover the emanating jewel. The dull white light pulses in her soft-looking but rough fingers. Her visible left eye darts towards Yukari and Reimu as they get to their feet, the jewel tucked safely inside the girl's own inner coat pocket.

"Tell me. What brings you two out here so late?" asks the girl with the eyepatch.

"...er...nothing, nothing," Reimu stammers.

"Really? Think fast."

The girl casually whips her handgun out again, sets her sights on Yukari's right shoulder, and squeezes the trigger. At the same time, a gap rips open in front of the shoulder and eats the bullet as it erupts from the pistol's barrel.

"With a power like that, you expect me to stand here and nod you guys off, like, 'oh yeah, they're not doing shit here'?"

Giving them a disdainful look, the eyepatch girl rolls her eyes and stashes her weapon away again.

"Don't just stand there - there's a bullet hole in your hand and you're gonna just watch it bleed out? C'mon, I'll take you to my place," she says as she begins walking back the way she came, towards Reimu and Yukari.

"And why would we do that?" asks Reimu, still on guard.

"Because I'm assuming you have nowhere to go. Where're you gonna stay? A hotel? The nearest one's a mile and a half from here, and if you go to a hospital, they'll want your background information, something I'm pretty sure you'd rather keep secret from everybody else."

Yukari and Reimu exchange hurried looks.

"Can you open up the portal again, Yukari?"

"I can, but it will require strength that I would rather not expend at the moment. Sustaining wounds in this world is a much more difficult task than it is in Gensokyou. On top of which, that girl may hold information about serenity that we need."

"So follow her?"

Yukari nods urgently.

"For now, it is our best option."

"She looks super suspicious, just saying."

"For someone who has gotten us out of quite the predicament, she is not that suspicious."

They hurry after the girl with the eyepatch, who walks quickly to her car that is parked next to the sidewalk of the office complex, beyond the alleyway around the corner.

"I'm assuming you stopped the bleeding. I paid good money for this car, so don't go ruining the seats, you hear?"

They round the corner, and a Lamborghini Aventador is sitting, raising its vertical doors for its passengers and driver.

"Get in. Can't hang around here for too long."

Reimu and Yukari, taken back by this futuristic-looking vehicle, shove their wonder to the back of their minds and climb in, and the doors slowly fall shut after them. The eyepatch girl turns the key to rev up the engine and switches on her headlights.

"Er, what's your name, again?" Reimu asks with a slightly hesitant tone.

The driver unwraps a green apple Jolly Rancher lollipop and pops it in her mouth.

"...call me Losira."


	2. AEK-971

"We're here."

The black and red Lamborghini Aventador, sporting a spoiler and bulletproof windows and wheels, pulls up to a gated community through a rather narrow black gate entrance. The driver reaches into her side dashboard and takes a remote gate opener, waiting for the gate to open for her after clicking it. Once the gate is open, Losira navigates through the single but wide community road to her abode, clicking another remote opener to gain access to her garage.

"...is this like some sort of apartment complex?" asks Reimu, unable to hold back her curiosity and trying to look all around outside the car as much as she can.

"Yeah. Here in Earth, we call this kind of complex a townhouse complex. Townhouses and apartments have different meanings here, but only in the sense that townhouses have a fancier connotation. Doesn't make a difference in the end."

Losira shuts off the engine and raises the doors for her guests, and they climb out of the car. Losira sighs deeply, thankful for the welcome presence of her home.

"This way."

They climb the first set of stairs into Losira's house.

"Ohhh..."

The faces of Losira's guests brighten up as the comforting and familiar smells of freshly brewed tea and mint from an electric air freshener greet the newcomers.

"Jasmine tea..." Yukari cannot help but recite her favorite tea aloud. Losira gives a chuckle, turning to Yukari.

"A lot of people don't know jasmine tea just by smell alone. You must like it a lot."

"But of course."

"Umm...for now, just sit on the couch. I'll be with you in a sec."

Reimu and Yukari sit on the brown couch as Losira tosses her coat onto the stairs' railings and enters the nearby kitchen to adjust the oven temperatures for her tea kettle. Sounds of trays and silverware bounce out of the kitchen doors as the girl spits out her clean lollipop stick, and Losira emerges with a tray of a kettle of jasmine tea, three slices of strawberry cheesecake, and three Japanese-style teacups. She sets the tray on the glass table before the brown couch and pulls over a rolling black swivel chair to accompany them.

"Give me your hand."

Yukari, not sure what Losira is up to, slowly presents her wounded hand whose bleeding is now minimal, and Losira kneels in seiza as she brings out the dull white jewel that she had recovered from the gang of masked men she had eliminated. She brings the light close to the bullet wound.

"It...it's healing," Reimu whispers, leaning in to see more clearly.

Slowly but surely, the ripped and torn body tissue repairs itself, starting with the deepest muscle and nerve and working its way inside out. After a minute, the last skin cell patches into the wound, leaving not even a scar behind. Losira sets it on the glass table, and the jewel begins rising up as if it has a magnetic resistance to the glass and hangs in the air, shining in the same dull low light as it always has.

"Now that that's done, I'd like your names, please. Oh, and, 'course, help yourselves," Losira says as she seats herself in her black swivel chair and swings left and right on it. Yukari and Reimu reach over to the tray and take a small plate each holding a slice of cheesecake.

"I'll go first. My name's Reimu Hakurei, and -"

"Oh, so you're Japanese?"

Yukari's eyes open wide in interest as Reimu blurts out in surprise.

"Yeah, we can speak Japanese together. I assume we're all fluent."

"Yeah. So like I said, I'm Hakurei Reimu, and she's Yakumo Yukari. We're friends, but we're from the other world. Gensokyou."

"Gensokyou, huh..."

Losira sips from her own cup of jasmine tea. Reimu nibbles carefully on her slice of cheesecake and gasps.

"Oh...this is good! What is this? It tastes like strawberry!"

"That's because it's strawberry cheesecake. You never had it before?"

Reimu shakes her head as she takes a much bigger bite and relishes the fresh fruit flavor.

"Glad you enjoy it. I made that myself."

Reimu stares in wonder at Losira.

"You - you can make something this good...? I thought...I thought only restaurants like the one we went to earlier were capable of making such food..."

"...I can tell you don't really eat very fancy very often."

Yukari bursts out giggling, much to Reimu's chagrin, and Reimu pokes at Yukari's side with her small fork.

"I've only heard of Gensokyou. Never been there, though I don't know if I'd want to."

"It is difficult to enter. Only special humans here in the outside world who know how to gain access to Gensokyou can enter, otherwise humans can only enter by circumstance. Very rare circumstance," Yukari mentions, drinking her beloved jasmine tea.

"Right. So if you two are from Gensokyou, what are you doing here?"

"Allow me to explain our situation. During the weeks leading up to this day, we have detected weakenings in the Hakurei Dai Kekkai of Gensokyou."

"And what is this Hakurei Dai Kekkai? Judging by the name, does Reimu have something to do with it?"

Reimu swallows another bite of strawberry cheesecake to speak.

"It's a barrier that my family established a long time ago to maintain the boundaries of Gensokyou and the outside world. It makes sure that the existence of Gensokyou is kept safe from this world's influences."

"Huh."

"With that in mind, we are the ones in charge of its maintenance. As I have stated just before, the Dai Kekkai is developing thinning portions of its power, much like how this world was once suffering holes in its ozone layer because of the previous fuel source that your world used before serenity, called gasoline, I believe."

"Kind of like that, huh...oh, by the way, I dunno where you heard that from, but gasoline wasn't the reason why the ozone layer was getting thinned out. They contributed to climate change, but not the ozone layer getting screwed - halogens did that, but you probably don't know what those are."

"Whatever the case, the progress of its weakening is alarming from what we have perceived. Therefore, in order to resolve it, we have come to this world to find a solution to the Dai Kekkai's faltering."

"But why can't you fix it from your end? Why come here?"

"We can't. We already tried, at least, Yukari tried to, but she couldn't do anything. If she can't, neither can I. So, we came here."

"We believe that...what did you call this world?"

"Earth. Just call it Earth."

"Yes...Earth...we believe that the new energy source that Earth is using fuel its society is the culprit behind our incident involving the Dai Kekkai. Our objective is to research this serenity and figure out why it is harming our Gensokyou."

"So you think serenity's punching holes in your barrier."

"Precisely."

"Why?"

Losira narrows her left eye at her guests as she leans forward to put down her teacup. The yin-yang on her right eyepatch gazes like a security camera at Yukari and Reimu.

"Think about it - this serenity stuff's not doing anything bad for your society here on Earth, right?" Reimu asks.

"It appears so. There haven't been any negative effects about using serenity reported yet."

"Then that's suspicious in itself already. How's it possible for a fuel source to have _absolutely no _adverse consequences when it's used? Isn't that scientifically impossible?"

Losira taps her fingers together, her elbows on the armrests of her swivel chair.

"Yeah, you've got a point there. And considering the nature of these jewels..."

"You mean to say that these jewels are also sources of serenity?" Yukari asks.

The eyepatch girl gazes at the dull white levitating jewel. Its light has dulled further, as it has entered the confines of a building and electric lights downplay its brightness.

"I'll tell you what I know about these jewels, and about serenity. It's very true that there is much more to serenity than Earth cares to know about. It's been a godsend to the people here, there's no mistaking that, so no one seems to question the sudden appearance of this serenity shit."

Losira closes her left eye.

"But first, I want you to prove to me that you're really from Gensokyou."

"Prove...?"

Yukari and Reimu look at each other, slightly confused.

"Yeah, prove. Don't care how you do it."

"But when you did that - thing - to Yukari, her gap ate whatever came out of it. What more proof do you want?"

"Because you're not the only ones who have powers like that running around on Earth."

"..."

"..."

Cold sweats form on their brows.

"There are...others, as well?"

"Ohhhhh, yeah. Maybe not as strong as you two, but there are people who possess powers of their own. So how should I know you're really from where you say you are?"

"Erm..."

Reimu turns to Yukari, as if voicelessly asking for help.

"The only way for us to adequately prove our origins is to take you to Gensokyou," Yukari states.

"Alright, then take me there now."

"We cannot, not at the moment."

"Well, why not?"

"The portal I have made to Earth is in the parking lot where you had found us. In order to return, we must go there."

"That so. Can't be doing that now."

"But you did say you wanted proof of our identities, correct?"

"I did, but right now going back there isn't a good idea. I've got people cleaning up after me. Best not to bother them."

Losira exhales somewhat forcefully, half a sigh, half a grunt.

"Whatever, then. I can tell you're not trying to deceive me. I'll take your word for it, for now..."

Losira takes her own slice of homemade strawberry cheesecake and forks out a piece.

"So, about serenity. How much do you know about it?"

"Uh...just general information. Like when it was first found and put into society, and all that stuff," Reimu says.

"So you already know a little bit, makes it easier on me. So, serenity is, to date, the world's most efficient fuel source."

As Losira begins her lecture, Reimu now notices the striking physical similarity between them.

"Serenity basically powers everything in the world now. Electricity, gas, heaters, everything. Everything's dictated by serenity. It's cheap, easy to harvest, process, manufacture, and transport. It's like cold fusion, minus the nuclear power plants."

Losira, like Reimu, has sweeping dark brown silky hair that extends to her lower chest. The eyepatch that obscures her right eye from view is made of tough rawhide leather, and yin-yang emblem appears to be printed with permanent ink onto the leather.

"You already probably know this, but serenity appeared outta nowhere in certain parts of the world. Four areas in North America, two in South America, five in Antarctica, um, I think four in Europe, four in the North Pole, three in the Middle East, six in the Pacific Islands, seven in Asia, one in India, and...yeah, that should be all."

Losira, like Reimu, has black eyes - at least, the one that isn't blocked by the eyepatch appears to be black. They resemble the same height and stature.

"But that's all the info that's given to the public, besides the mechanical stuff involving the industrial process and shit like that. Here's what people don't know."

Reimu and Yukari subconsciously learn forward slightly.

"Serenity is, as you probably can feel, is a magical energy source. It's simply too good to be true from a modern scientific standpoint for an energy source like this to exist naturally on Earth, and it is. Serenity's not supposed to exist here. The governments of the world are keeping this a secret from their people, since if the public knew, they'd think their governments are being controlled by magicians or some crap like that."

"So it _was_ magic," Reimu chimes in.

"Basically. You can almost say that our society now basically operates on magic, a magic it doesn't believe in."

"But how is that possible? Earth's society has stopped believing in the supernatural and magic-like entities, have they not?" Yukari asks.

"Generally speaking, yeah, but the reason why magic can still exist here is because people have enough faith in things like luck and other things that science can't explain. Why does the Bermuda Triangle exist, and what is it really? Is Bigfoot out there roamin' the forests of Canada or something like that? Are there aliens out there in outer space? Superstition, occult stuff, people's acknowledgement that there _might_ be something out there that they can't explain is what makes magic possible on Earth. But that's generally speaking," Losira bites into the second half of her delicious cheesecake.

"So what does this jewel have to do in relation to serenity?" Yukari points at the levitating jewel, shaped like a small water drop and rotating slowly and lazily.

"I was about to get to that. What the vast majority of Earth's human population is oblivious to is the fact that besides the current major sources of serenity, there are jewels like these that frequently drop around the globe. Those guys you saw me shoot and me, we're called Beta Testers, or Betas for short. Reference to the Alpha Testers, who're what we dub the government workers who process serenity at the major sources. They're all government-controlled, by the way."

"Betas?"

"Sorry, went off on a tangent there, but it's a relevant one, lemme explain. Like I just said, all the major sources of serenity are federally monitored. The governments around the world who rule the lands where the Alpha Blocks, which are what those serenity sources are named, control those Blocks. The reason why we Betas exist is because there are agencies out there, either independent, or indie for short, or government-funded, who want to research serenity in much further detail. Governments keep serenity's secrets extremely confidential. It's hard for normal scientists to gain clearance to handle even any sample of raw, unrefined serenity. That's where we come in -"

Losira points her fork at the floating jewel.

"We gather these jewel things called Beta Blocks. These are the jewels that drop every so often, like I mentioned before. Our job is to recover these where they land and secure them for our respective agencies, or if you're an indie Beta Tester, you sell it to the highest bidder."

"What is so important about these...Beta Blocks that there are groups of people who are interested in them? They are magic energy, yes, but normal humans cannot comprehend magic energy," Yukari wonders.

"I don't like repeating things. I already said there're people out there who want to study these things. It's frickin' magic energy, but they don't know that! So of course they'll be in over their heads tryin' ta get their hands on these things. They've all got their reasons - either they wanna win some Nobel Prize for Molecular Science or some shit, or use it for their own personal gain like getting super powers or crap like that, or just expose the truths of serenity to the world, if there's anything to be exposed," Losira licks her plate clean of crumbs and sets it down on the tray again. "Just because they don't realize it's magic energy that they're going after doesn't mean they don't want it. And if they knew it was magic, all the more reason to get 'em."

"Then why do these Beta Blocks appear? Is it random, or is there like a set pattern to them?" Reimu asks.

"It's really on chance. If you're a Beta who's got some sort of magical background, you can probably just feel them out and know where and when the next Block's landing. If not, either you need to have someone feeding you info, or you just need to be in the right place at the right time."

"Pure luck, in other words."

"Basically."

"Then how'd you know this one was coming?"

"I work for a federal agency myself. They're people who are close associates of mine, friends, if you will. They gave me the slip. I deliver these to 'em, or they'll send someone I know to get 'em from me."

Losira pours herself another cup of jasmine tea from the kettle.

"That, and my eye told me."

Reimu blinks awkwardly.

"Your eye?"

"The one you can't see."

Reimu and Yukari stare at her eyepatch. The yin-yang, stoic and unmoving, stares back at them.

"Are you capable of magic?" Yukari asks, her voice slightly but noticeably defensive.

"How else would I be able to say my eye was the one who guided me to this Beta Block?"

"How learned are you?"

"Why should I tell you?"

Another tense silence.

"I haven't asked about your own powers, and although I admit I've never been to Gensokyou to know how people treat one another there, I don't think it's appropriate to ask me about the extent of my power," Losira says calmly in a low but subtly dangerous voice.

Reimu and Yukari remain silent, not risking to alienate their acquaintance further. Losira sips from her cup of jasmine tea.

"That's really all there is know about serenity. Ironically, what we know isn't about the actual serenity itself, but that's to be expected from such an enigmatic entity."

"Then..." Reimu starts, but hesitates.

"Then?"

"Then why are you going after these Beta Blocks? What's in store for you if you get these? You know our reason, why don't you tell us yours?"

Losira glares at Reimu at first, then drops her gaze and gives a short snort.

"Touche. Fine, I'll tell you. I've got a few reasons, actually. Like you two, I wanna know where serenity came from. Its origins, its identity. Why we didn't know about its existence here up til a few years ago, and all of a sudden, bam, it's here. It's too suspicious, even if it's proven to be completely safe to humans. I guess you two will take this further and delve into its possible adverse consequences, but that's your own problem to worry about."

Reimu narrows her own eyes at Losira's stark frankness.

"Second reason...learn more about its magical background. It's magic, that's for sure. But it's not like anything that exists on Earth prior to its discovery. Its signature, from what we know now, is completely unique. There is no reason for it to be here on Earth. I want to know if there's a way to harvest its magical potential."

"What will you do with its magical potential?" Yukari asks.

"..."

Losira's hands, which are about to raise her teacup to her mouth, freeze.

"...if I have asked an uncomfortable question..."

"...it's personal, so I won't tell you. Maybe later, when it's necessary for you to know, sorry."

"Er, no, the apology is mine-"

"Whatever, doesn't matter. I have reasons to get these Beta Blocks, personal or not. That's all I'll say."

Losira's lip curls in annoyance.

"That aside, I've told you everything there's to know about serenity. Broadly speaking. So what do you want to do?"

"Er, what do you mean?" Reimu asks.

"In my eyes, you've got two options: either I drive you two back to that lot so you can return back home to Gensokyou, or you stay the night here and then go back. It's your choice, unless you can think of something to do. Your hand is healed, right?"

Yukari nods, glancing at her right hand. Reimu looks over at Yukari.

"So what do you wanna do, Yukari?"

After contemplating for a half a minute, Yukari speaks out again.

"I believe the best course of action for us is to stay, and possibly for an extended period of time."

At this Reimu gawks.

"The hell, Yukari, I thought you said we'll go back home tonight!"

Ignoring Reimu's complaints, Yukari continues.

"Our work here in this world is imperative to the safety of our Gensokyou. Without the Hakurei Dai Kekkai, this world you call Earth will collapse into Gensokyou and eradicate any chance for youkai and other non-humans to live in relative safety from humans here, not to mention the existence of things that have since lost existence on this side as well. You, in our perspective, are a golden opportunity to progress in our quest to identify the problem behind the Dai Kekkai's thinning, whether it be because of serenity or something else."

Losira crosses her arms across her chest.

"So you want to work with me. Is that it?"

"What else could I be possibly suggesting?"

"Hmmm..."

Losira ponders the possibility.

"Thing is, I normally operate alone. I can work with people, but honestly, if my partners aren't competent, I fucking hate it, 'cause it just drags me down. I'm being completely honest, here. Not trying to say going co-op is a bad thing, necessarily, but I've collabbed with other people in the past, and lots of times it didn't turn out so well."

"Then we shall see if we fulfill your definition of competence."

Losira sighs.

"You're really banking on teaming with me, aren't you? Alright then, I'll give you a chance. Tell me what your powers are, since you claim to be from this Gensokyou place."

Losira points at Reimu.

"Starting with you."

"Me? Oh...er...my power's mainly to fly. I can use these shikigami and ofuda as weapons, though. I've prepared them in Gensokyou, so they're packed with spiritual energy and I can use them at any time here," Reimu says as she pulls out her paper armaments and sets them on the glass table. Losira leans over and takes one of each to examine with piqued interest. "If we wanna go more in depth, I can also call upon divine powers of the god that I serve, since I'm a miko back home in Gensokyou. Dunno how effective that'll be while I'm here on Earth, though."

"I see. What about you?" Losira points Reimu's ofuda at Yukari.

"My manipulation ability is to control the definitions of boundaries and borders that I sense."

"Boundaries and borders? The hell, that's really vague."

"Then allow me to demonstrate."

Yukari picks up her cheesecake fork from the tray on the glasstop table, holding it out for all to see. With a quick flash, the fork's stainless steel is swapped for pure gold.

"Ohhhh, bravo, bravo. Can you pull a rabbit out of a hat, too?"

"You jest; I am no magician," Yukari smirks as she sets down the now-pure gold fork back on the tray.

"Damn, that's a total letdown. Yo, Reimu, are you sure you don't have any other super awesome powers? Since it sure seems like your friend here can kick your ass any day of the week," Losira and Yukari both giggle at Reimu's chagrin again.

"Hey, shut it, you two, 'cause I'm actually stronger than Yukari is in Gensokyou!" Reimu pouts and pinches Yukari's left arm.

"Right, right. Judging from your powers alone, I can tell you two could make good partners. I think we can work something out, yeah."

"So we have an agreement, then?" Yukari finishes her own cup of tea.

"I suppose so. It's pretty clear we have similar ends, so we can help each other out."

Yukari smiles, as if she has scored an important victory. Reimu busily shovels Yukari's own half-eaten cheesecake slice as Losira holds out her right hand to the youkai.

"..."

"This is how we agree to deals and partnerships here in this world. A handshake."

"...I see. Very well, then."

They shake.

"Now that we've officially agreed to collaborate, for the time being, I'll let you use my house as your home here on Earth. How long are you planning to stay, approximately?"

"I think we'll be staying for tonight, I guess, and we'll go back. Are we hopping back and forth for now, Yukari?"

"It depends on what we learn about serenity and this...secret movement that trafficks these Beta Blocks. We may find ourselves in a position where we do not even need to return to Gensokyou until this incident is resolved."

"No, that is NOT happening." Reimu pulls on Yukari's cheek this time. "There's no way I'm just leaving my shrine there without anyone looking after it."

"Mkay, mkay, you two can discuss that on your own time and tell me afterwards."

Losira stands up to take the tray back into the kitchen. She glances at the clock, which displays 11:43pm.

"I know it's late, but either of you want to have some dinner?"

Upon the word "dinner", both Yukari's and Reimu's stomachs growl very, very loudly. Losira bursts out laughing, unable to help herself.

"I think I'll take that as a yes."

"W-W-We haven't eaten in like, since lunch! ! ! Normally I'd have snacks in between! !" Reimu stammers, red-faced.

"Yeah, yeah. Just sit tight, I'll fix you something real quick."

Reimu gets up and walks in after Losira.

"Hm? You wanna help cook, then?"

"It'll be faster. What're we making?"

"Uhh...I haven't thought that far, actually, hehe...um..."

Losira opens her refrigerator in search of ingredients.

"...what is this...weird thing?"

"It's called a refrigerator. It's what we use to keep food cool so we can cook it later."

"Ooohhh..."

Fascinated by the fridge, Reimu opens the left door to the freezer and sticks her hands in.

"Ahhhh...so cold, so nice..."

"That's the freezer. It's colder than this side, so we put stuff that needs to stay frozen in there, like ice cream and stuff."

"That's cool."

"Pun intended?"

"Eh? Oh...hey, don't switch to English on me like that, I'm not used to it!"

"But you speak fluently. You only have a slight Japanese accent."

"Yukari messed with it."

"Messed with it? You mean she used that power of hers to make you learn English overnight or something?"

"More or less."

"Wow. That's convenient. I've spent years learning languages..."

Losira piles her ingredients onto the kitchen countertop next to her stove and pulls out frying pans. Reimu helps herself to an cherry popsicle.

"C'mon, I was saving that for after dinner," Losira growls, making Reimu jump.

"Oh crap, s-sorry. I just saw it and...yeah..." Reimu scratches her head, embarrassed. Losira drops her angry look as soon as it appears.

"Nah, just messin' with you. You like sweet stuff, huh?"

"Heh, yeah, I do. You like red stuff too, for your part."

"You noticed?"

"You gave us strawberry cheesecake or whatever that dessert was called, and your freezer thing's full of these ice cream things. That can't be a coincidence."

"That a bad thing?" Losira turns on the stove and pours olive oil on a frying pan.

"No, I'm just saying. I really like red stuff too, it's my favorite color."

"Then we've got something in common. Can you wash the broccoli for me?"

* * *

"Ahhhh...I'm saved..." Reimu moans, satisfied, laying her head on the mahogany table just outside the kitchen. Three empty plates, once filled to the brim with steamed broccoli, purple rice, scrambled eggs, strips of bacon, sit next to three empty bowls that once held hearty miso soup.

"Gochisosama. Come, Reimu, where are your manners? She has gone all this way to feed us, and the first thing you do is put that empty head of yours on the table?" Yukari gazes, disappointed, at her companion.

"Oh, right, sorry, gochisosama."

"No probs, I'll take your plates if you're done."

"I shall help." Yukari stands with Losira to take the plates and bowls to the kitchen. "Where should we-"

"Sink. Just leave them here, I'll wash 'em later."

Losira opens her cupboard and pulls out another tray, loading it with fresh tangerines from her fridge, peanuts, and a quart of fruit punch and glasses. "I hope neither of you have a peanut allergy."

"Not that I am aware of."

They exit the kitchen, and Losira calls to Reimu.

"Yo, Reimu, let's go to the living room."

"Ehhhh? Whyyyy?" Reimu calls out lazily, clearly in no mood to get up from her chair.

"We need to talk business. Plus, I've got snacks."

"Snacks...okaaayyyy..."

Reimu lifts herself off her chair and follows after them listlessly.

"Are snacks the only thing you care about?" Yukari puts a karate chop hand on Reimu's hairbow.

"Yukari, we've known each other ever since I was born, you _know_ that already."

They sit on the soft synthetic fur carpet. Losira sets down the tray for them, walks to the piano seat, opens the top, and withdraws a small black box before taking a seat on the carpet herself. The living room is unlike any room Reimu has ever seen: plush couch against the wall, colored beanbags big enough for a person to sit on, a 64'' plasma TV, and bookshelves full of books, from classic texts to manga. Blinds cover the sliding reinforced windows that lead to the small porch outside. As Yukari and Reimu munch on peanuts, Losira unstraps her pistol holster and sets it next to her, pulling out her Colt M1911 MEU and laying it on top of the holster. She presses the latches on her small black box, and the cover lifts to reveal its contents: gun cleaning parts.

"So, we need to discuss how you're going to fight here on Earth. When we're working together, we're going to be running into other people who're after the Beta Blocks as well. How much are you able to use your powers here?"

"Not very well. It is to the point where we have reserved our powers and abilities for the utmost dangerous or critical of situations," Yukari says.

"So like in life-or-death circumstances."

"Yes."

"Then with that in mind, obviously you won't be using those powers of yours all the time. Which brings me to my next point..."

Losira raises her handgun for Yukari and Reimu to see clearly in the living room lights. The slide is hand-painted a hardy, anti-wear black with white stripes. The black handle comes equipped with an ergonomic, white Strider grip.

"This is called a handgun, or a pistol. This is what is classified as a "firearm", weapons that we use here on Earth to kill each other with."

"Yeah, we saw, from earlier this evening," Reimu mumbles through her mouth full of tangerines.

"Before I explain how this thing works, throw one of those tags at me."

"What, my ofuda?"

"Yeah, that."

"Okay...if you say so..."

Reimu pulls out one ofuda tag and flicks it quickly at Losira. With lightning-fast reflexes, Losira smacks the ofuda out of the air with the back of her right hand, and the ofuda explodes harmlessly from the physical force applied to it.

"I don't know how you fight over in Gensokyou, but that shit is weak. Even if you were at your full power, I can tell those things aren't meant to kill, only disable."

"That's because they're not _meant_ to. I invented these kinds of attacks, you know. We call them danmaku; it's a way for humans and youkai to fight and resolve problems without there having to be any unnecessary deaths in Gensokyou."

"Yeah, well, what do you want me to do, throw you a party and say congratulations? If _those_'re the kind of powers you'll rely on to save your lives, I feel bad for you," Losira smirks unamusedly as she begins to break down her pistol, popping out the loaded round in the chamber and pulling out the magazine before disassembling the slide. Reimu glares at Losira.

"You want me to put my full power in, then? Are you trying to provoke me?"

"Calm down, Reimu, there is no need for that."

"Deal with it. Even if you did put your full power into it, which I'll assume you can kill people with, how long can you sustain that, especially here on Earth, where you can't use magic or energy like that efficiently? You need to defend yourselves somehow. And this is how."

Losira wipes the chamber with a clean cloth rag.

"Tomorrow, I'll take you two down to a gun range that I know to train you. You need to know how to use guns, because they'll be the best form of personal defense we can provide you here."

At this, Reimu groans.

"Great, even _more_ work..."

"You wanna get shot and killed? Be my guest. It only takes one bullet in your brain to get rid of you forever."

"Tch."

"Hey, I'm doing what I can to help you guys. There've been some jobs I haven't been able to do because it'd take more than one person to pull off. Having you two help me may pay off for me if I can train you right."

Reimu leans over to Yukari as Losira applies M-Pro 7 solvent on her gun and lets it sit on a clean wooden board. "Yukari, don'tcha think that rabbit of Eirin's would be really nice to have right now?"

"That rabbit could be a considerable asset, as these weapons seem to fit her style."

"I know, right..."

"Then may I ask what it is you are doing now with that...gun, is it called?" Yukari beckons at the standing M1911, the solvent eating away at the molecular buildup inside its components.

"I'm cleaning my gun. It's important to maintain these if you own one and are planning to use them for a long time, it increases their effective duration and prevents them from blowing up in your hand."

"T-They can do that?" Reimu is visibly disturbed by the fact.

"I'll explain in further detail later, but to put it generally, what happens when you use a sword in battle and you don't clean it and take care of it? The blood on it'll ruin the steel, the blade itself'll get chipped and possibly rust or some shit if it gets bad enough, and it won't be able to cut as easily as it would if you took care of it. Same thing." Losira starts to scrub the parts with a toothbrush.

"So you would do the same for a weapon like that?" Yukari points behind her, and Reimu and Losira follow the finger. Hanging next to the TV on the wall, on a gun rack, is a dark gray assault rifle.

An M4A1 CCO.

"Yeah. It's a lot bigger of a pain, but you still gotta do it. But you won't be handling AR's anytime soon, you leave that to me if shit goes down."

"Uh, AR's?"

"Assault Rifles. They're a heavier form of firearms. It's actually illegal to own a fully automatic rifle here in California, but I have a special license to get around that, since I work for a federal agency." Losira wipes down the gun of the solvent, taps at the chamber with a metal pick from the cleaning case, watching as the chunk buildups fall onto the wooden board, and inserts a bore brush into the barrel. "There are lots of types of firearms, but the only one you need to know for now are pistols, handguns, guns like these."

The girls watch as Losira swipes down the gun before applying oil and lubricant. Reimu's eyes drift over onto Losira's eyepatch.

"Ne, Losira."

"Yeah?"

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your eye? You mentioned it helped you know where the Beta Block was, so I take it that it's magical or something. And why the yin-yang? It's sort of, like, my emblem, too."

A long silence follows Reimu's question as Losira remains quiet, double-checking to make sure all parts have been properly lubed. Once she finishes the cleaning process, she speaks as she assembles the M1911 again.

"Shit happened a long time ago. I was caught up in one giant nightmare. I managed to survive it...but...I lost a little bit too much of myself back then. But what I got out of it - the only thing I got out of all that - was this eye. A souvenir I wish I never had."

"...but it helps you, right?"

"Nothing that this eye can do for me will ever make up for what I lost in gaining it."

The heavy words drop like a hammer onto glass. Reimu, getting the gist that the conversation is quickly becoming sour, shuts up.

"...sorry for asking."

"..."

Losira presses the ejected bullet back into its magazine and slips the mag back into the pistol grip before throwing the catch.

"...the yin-yang is my favorite symbol. Actually, to be more precise, it's my family logo. I'm half Japanese, quarter Korean and quarter Chinese, so that's probably not too surprising."

"Family logo?"

"Yeah. My parents really liked it, since they were raised in Confucian and Buddhist families. It meant a lot to them, you know, the whole balance of black and white, shit like that. I used to like it just because it looked cool 'n all. But it means a lot more to me now."

"Speaking of your parents, you seem to be roughly the same age as Reimu. Where are they? Do you live here alone?" Yukari asks, sipping some cool fruit punch.

"How old are you, Reimu?"

"Eighteen."

"Then we're the same age."

"Oh, cool."

"My parents are dead."

Yukari stops drinking, and Reimu's heart drops.

"...oh dear...I'm sorry to hear that," Yukari whispers as she lowers her cup.

"...sorry for what? You didn't do anything." Losira puts away her gun cleaning materials into the black case and clicks it shut. "At least, I hope you weren't involved, because otherwise if I knew you were, I'd've killed you already."

"S-So you live here alone? But for how long?" Reimu asks, struggling to keep the depressing conversation afloat.

"Thirteen years." Losira stands up and stashes the black cleaning case back in the piano seat and takes the wooden board, pulls over the trash can, and carefully sweeps the carbon buildup into the plastic bag that lines the wastebasket.

"T-Then, how long have you been involved in this...in this job of yours recovering Beta Blocks?"

"Ever since I knew about their existence."

"Which was?"

"Ever since the world started using serenity as a fuel source." Losira straps her pistol holster onto her belt again and slips her weapon inside. "It's late now. Normally I'd stay up much longer, but since I'll need to start training you two ASAP, I'll need my sleep." She kneels to take the now-empty tray and starts walking back to the kitchen.

"Er, excuse me, but neither of us brought any extra clothes or -"

"Don't worry, I'll let you use mine. We're all girls here, after all," Losira calls, cutting Yukari's concerned words short. "Would you get the lights before you head upstairs?"

Yukari and Reimu get up, looking around for a lightswitch. Losira waits for Reimu to flip the lights off, and the three women ascend the stairs to the second floor.

"So this is my room - since I live here by myself, I basically have it all to myself. That being said, because of that reason, I don't have any other beds in this house," Losira says as they enter the master bedroom. A big king-sized canopy bed, appropriately furnished with red curtains and bedsheets and pillows, is the most outstanding feature of the room, and surrounding it sit dozens of stuffed animals, mainly dogs and cats. A wardrobe, backed up against the narrow stretch of wall between the door and the bathroom, stands next to a closet that basically occupies a whole wall of the room, blocked off by sliding doors. An office desk, supporting three 24'' 1920x1080 HD display monitors, houses a full-tower red-white computer with a white plush swivel chair. One wall is completely occupied with rows upon rows of gun racks, containing everything from AK-47's to M32 grenade launchers.

"I'd like this room a lot more if _those_ weren't just sitting there staring at us," Reimu mutters as she drifts towards Losira's canopy bed.

"Where would you like us to sleep?" Yukari asks Losira as the latter unstraps her pistol holster again and puts it on her desk, hanging up her custom-painted M1911 MEU on its rack on the wall.

"On that bed. Unless you prefer sleeping on the ground, we'll be sharing that bed."

"Oh..."

"You sound surprised. There a problem?"

"Oh, er, no, not at all. It is just your answer was very swift."

"You're not going to do anything funny while we're sleeping, are you?"

"Don't worry, Losira, she's too old to be interested in little giiiiiiiiiiiirls ~ ahahahahaha ~ !"

Reimu hoots with laughter as Yukari puts her hand through a small gap and pinches the miko's forehead with her sharp fingernails.

"Ow, ow ow ow ow! ! ! Stop, stop, stop, I get it, I get it! ! !"

"If you two are done flirting, I have two showers, one of them's a bathtub. Here're some towels, leave your clothes on the floor here, and I'll wash them for you." Losira digs into one of her wardrobe's drawers and tosses out some clean white shower towels at her guests. "Speaking of which, do you even know how to use these showers?"

Both Yukari and Reimu shake their heads.

"Damn...then you two go in the bathtub one, and I'll show you how to use it."

"Hooray, isn't this wonderful, Reimu? We get to bathe together as we once did when you were younger!"

"DON'T SOUND LIKE YOU'RE ACTUALLY EXCITED ABOUT IT! ! ! ! ! !"

"But what if I am?"

"Ugghhhhh..."

* * *

"I shall turn off the lights, is that okay?" Yukari asks the other two girls. They are all in pajamas that Losira has as spares, and Yukari's hand is through a small gap to reach the light switch next to the door.

"Yeah."

"Nn."

_Flick!_

The room is thrown into darkness, and Yukari lays her head down on her pillow on her end of the canopy bed. The size of the bed easily fits the three ladies.

"Is it really okay for me to be in the middle? It's your bed, you know," Reimu whispers to Losira, to is to Reimu's left on the bed.

"Doesn't matter to me."

"Mkay, then."

Already, soft snores can be heard on Yukari's end of the bed.

"Holy...she sleeps fast, the hell..."

"Heh...she's kind of like that...normally she'd be sleeping twelve hours a day..."

"For real...?"

Losira and Reimu lay with their eyes still open, staring up at the canopy bed's roof. The yin-yang eyepatch is still being worn, obscuring Losira's right eye even from the darkness of the night.

"Ne, Losira?"

"...what?"

"...is it weird for me to say that your hair smells exactly like mine?"

"...I guess. Does it?"

"I can smell it from here."

"Are you some sort of dog?"

"No, but...it's one of those scents where...you know, you just know it."

Losira reaches out next to her and takes a lock of Reimu's dark brown hair to lift up to her own nose.

"...you're right, our hair do smell the same. Interesting."

"Also, speaking of dogs, you have so many of these plushies around, why don't you just get an actual puppy? I hear people in the outside world love to have pets."

"..."

Only the sound of Yukari's soft snores can be heard to break the ear-splitting sound of utmost silence.

"...because if I do get a pet, I'll be a terrible owner."

"...why do you think that?"

"...I won't be able to take care of it like a normal owner would. I'd be too busy off killing people. What kind of owner can go out and murder people for a living and come back home expecting to be able to care for a pet?"

"Well, you can't think of it that way...you're just trying to get those Beta Blocks, you're not going around _trying_ to kill people, right...?"

"Trying or not, at the end of the day, oftentimes I come home knowing I put a bullet in someone's head. That thought alone is more than enough to drive some people crazy, and it'll make me feel like a massive hypocrite if I ever owned pets."

"..."

"Besides..."

Losira turns to her left, facing her back to Reimu.

"...I forgot what it means to love someone or something ever since my nightmare ended."

Reimu turns her head to Losira, seeing only her back in the moonlight that tries to bleed into the room through the blinds against the windows. She soon returns to staring up at the canopy bed roof.

"...good night, Losira."

"..."

A full five minutes pass, and as Reimu begins to drift off to sleep, she hears a very quiet whisper to her left.

"...oyasumi."


	3. AK-12

"N...nnn..."

The early morning sunlight soaks through the blinds of the master bedroom, and the birds sitting in the trees outside chirp enthusiastically, happily greeting the entrance of another sunny day. Hakurei Reimu, in Losira's extra set of red and blue pajamas and nightcap that resembles a Santa Claus hat, stirs and wakes, her eyes blinking sleepily and trying to get into focus.

"...morning..."

Reimu squeezes her eyes to help gain her vision. When she does, however, the first thing she sees -

"...who...?"

Losira's head is rubbing slightly against Reimu's collarbone and bosom. Her arms have somehow managed to tug Reimu over to her left side during the night, hugging the miko like a body pillow. Reimu can smell the soft, fresh conditioner still lingering on Losira's hair and her breathing on her cleavage.

"..._how did things end up like this_..."

Reimu, unable to decide on a correct course of action, remains in the posture that she woke up in. Her eyes travel along the length of Losira's dark brown hair, its color accentuated in the sunlight that pokes through the window blinds. Then, she spots the yin-yang eyepatch.

"..."

Her curiosity getting the better of her again, Reimu inches her hand towards the patch. Just as her fingernails touch the leather to pull down the eyepatch, Losira whispers, causing Reimu to almost ripoff the patch in surprise.

"...O..."

Losira's head presses harder against Reimu's body.

"...nii-chan..."

Reimu blinks awkwardly.

"...Onii-chan...?"

Losira's left eye pokes open. Then, the arms that Losira has put around Reimu dart out and push Reimu sharply away. The shrine maiden yelps, not expecting such a violent reaction.

"Ow - hey, what was that for...?" Reimu sits up, rubbing her shoulders where Losira has pushed her away. The eyepatch girl is sitting on the edge of her bed, her back facing the others.

"Did I do anything weird to you over the night?" Losira's voice is hardly one notch above a whisper.

"...huh? Say that again, I can't hear yo-"

"Did I do anything weird?"

Reimu notices that Losira is shaking slightly.

"...other than me waking up to find your head in my boobs, no, not really...I don't think..."

Losira stands up quickly and walks straight for the bathroom to get ready for the day. The fan of the bathroom begins to whir noisily as the sounds of drawers opening and closing accompany it. Reimu gazes over to the drawers to the left of the canopy bed, on top of which sit rows of folder files and an alarm clock with its alarm off. 8:26am.

Next to the alarm clock, an old, standing 4''x6'' picture frame depicts a picture Reimu has overlooked due to her inattentiveness from the previous night. An extremely faded picture, one that has clearly seen much age and abuse during its time. Crinkles, small rips, and fold lines pepper the photo like sand at a beach. In it, a girl with short dark hair is hugging another smiling boy, also with short dark hair. A slightly taller boy can be seen behind them, bearhugging them both.

"...Onii-chan...right?"

Reimu gazes at it and subconsciously allows her mind to wander, getting lost in the picture until Losira emerges from the bathroom, her hair neatly combed and her face washed and soaped.

"Reimu, I'll take your clothes and stick 'em in the washer. It'll take about an hour and a half to wash 'n dry 'em, so take any clothes of mine that fit you. We're basically the same height, so they should all fit on you."

"Eh? W-Washer? What...is..." Reimu gives a helpless chuckle, still vastly unfamiliar with the strange technological inventions of the more modern outside world.

"It's a machine that washes your clothes for you. There's also a machine that dries clothes after they've been washed. Do you still do laundry by hand at your place?"

"Yeah, mainly. We don't have fancy gadgets like...washers...or driers...or whatever they're called, hehe."

Losira points at the still-snoozing Yukari. "When's she gonna get up?"

"Yukari? Uhhh..." Reimu simply shrugs, again in a helpless fashion. "Either we'll have to kick her until she gets up, or she wakes up on her own."

"Leave her alone then, we're not leaving now." Losira strips off her red-and-green checkered pajamas, throws them back in her wardrobe, pulls on a pair of running shorts and a tanktop sporting the words _THEY LIED TO ME WHEN THEY SAID THIS WAS A TANK TOP_ and a little picture of an immobilized Sherman missing its main gun battery. She bends over to scoop up Yukari's and Reimu's clothes and nudges open the door with her toe. Reimu listens to Losira trudge down the stairs to the garage where the washing and drying machines dwell and lets her eyes wander around the room again. The stone-faced, emotionless firearms that line the wall to her left stare relentlessly at anyone and anything that sets their eyes on them. Ignoring them, however, the master bedroom, flooded with warm sunlight from the windows whose blinds Losira has opened to let in the rays, gives a very homey feeling, tempting Reimu to snuggle back underneath the covers next to the gently snoring and slightly drooling Yukari. She is just about to do exactly that when something that is hanging on one of the posts supporting the canopy bed roof catches her glimpse.

"...?"

Reimu discerns a small jade-colored necklace with a black strap hanging on the thin upper right beam. The luscious beauty of the emerald causes Reimu to wonder how she didn't see it the first time she climbed into the bed the night before. A red-white jewel penchant, its strap made of pure and luxurious silk thread, reflects back the sunlight into Reimu's eyes. Unable to hold back her overflowing curiosity, Reimu crawls towards it on the bed and lifts it off its hook to hold the precious jewel in her hands.

"..."

As she gazes into the swirls of red and white within the circle jewel, Reimu feels a strange warmth develop in her hands. A warmth she didn't know she had known, a warmth that told her that she should know where she felt this kind of warmth before in her life. But she cannot identify the warmth; she cannot recall when the last time was that she held such a warmth in her hands. Her memory becomes hazy and mushy as she struggles to remember. Unable to stand such an anxiety that she is feeling just from holding the jewelry, Reimu hangs the penchant up on its hook again and opts to simply look at it from afar.

"...why do I feel like I've seen that somewhere before..." Reimu finds herself muttering. Two floors below her, the rumbling of the washing machine begins to churn and rotate, and Losira's footsteps can be heard ascending back up to the first floor. The early morning habits of the shrine maiden begin to kick in, and Reimu has a hard time again deciding between joining Yukari in slumber or getting up and being productive.

"I should be lazy when I have the chance..." But as she says this, Reimu swings her legs off the bed and hops off, throwing her own dark brown hair behind her shoulders before browsing through Losira's wardrobe for a fresh batch of clothes. Selecting and donning a black shirt patterned with a white outline that forms a yin-yang, a pair of plain white socks, and polka-dot shorts, the miko yawns for the last time as she descends the stairs to the first floor to join her host in the kitchen, who is preoccupied with the task of fixing breakfast.

"You need something?" Losira asks without looking, spreading low-fat butter onto six pieces of sweet Hawaiian bread and dropping them onto a wide skillet doused with a light layer of olive oil. The frying of the butter against the oil at oven temperature throws the kitchen into a cacophony of sizzles instantaneously.

"Not really. I just came down to see if there's anything I can help you with."

"You like cooking, huh."

"I have to feed myself, and sometimes a lot more people if I'm throwing parties or festivals at my shrine. Or if someone else throws them," Reimu says as she opens the fridge and grabs a bottle of Fuji water. "Naturally, I've gotten quite good at it."

"You haven't answered if you like it or not."

"Like it? Meh. I pass."

"So it's a chore for you, mainly."

"It involves work. So of course it's a chore."

"That how you see it."

"Yeah, more or less." Reimu pops the cap and chugs the water. Losira flips the bread slices and opens the rice cooker to check the amount of purple rice remaining from the previous night's dinner.

"What about you, Losira? You like cooking?"

Losira closes the rice cooker top and starts cutting slices of fresh tomato on the cutting board.

"I didn't like to at first. Like you, I just thought of it as another damn chore. I mean, all the effort you put into making meals for people, let alone yourself, is tiring enough, isn't it?" Losira's knife thumps against the board. "That's what I used to think, until I knew what starvation felt like."

"...you too, huh..."

"..."

Losira sweeps the cut tomato slices with her knife onto one side of the cutting board and puts the knife in the sink. Reimu sidesteps out of Losira's way as the latter reaches into the fridge to take out a plastic bag of cured ham.

"After I tasted starvation, I never found cooking to be a chore again. I'm pretty thankful that I have a house with food in it that I can cook and eat, y'know. And eventually, it became something I love to do, either as a hobby or as something that's supposed to be a chore."

"That's good, I guess."

Having pulled the lightly fried slices of buttered Hawaiian bread out of the frying pan and putting two on each of the three nearby plates, Losira then scrapes the tomato slices and ham together into the frying pan in the frying butter and olive oil.

"Lemme ask you, Reimu. If you don't like cooking, do you like cooking for other people?"

Reimu ponders the thought, tapping the neck of her water bottle against her lower lip.

"I dunno. I guess...it's just another chore for me. Whether I'm cooking for just myself or for other people, it's still effort I need to put into preparing food, so I guess for me, doesn't make too much of a difference."

"Really. Because I'm the opposite."

"Opposite?"

"I enjoy cooking for other people way more than if I'm making food just for myself. I suppose my reasoning behind it is that whenever I cook for someone, I can be relieved that they don't have to experience the kind of starvation I suffered. At least, not for a little bit longer."

"...that's a really dark way of looking at it."

"But that's how I look at it, so deal with it."

Losira turns and looks Reimu straight in the eyes. "Then let me ask you something else."

"Y-Yeah?"

"Does food taste better when you eat food you've made yourself, or when someone else made it for you?"

The delicious sizzling of frying ham pops and crackles behind Losira.

"...um...I mean...honestly...to me, food's food. I'm not going to complain about where it came from, as long as it's edible and I'm not gonna get food poisoning or whatever from it."

"Hm."

"Why, what about you?"

"I prefer my own food. It's proof that I can sustain myself without having to depend on anyone else."

"Then what if you had a close friend make something for you?"

"That only applies if I had 'close friends', ya see."

Losira turns and shakes the skillet by the handle.

"The only ones I know who could fulfill the role of 'close friends' don't have time to be cooking for others, if they even know how at all."

"That sucks."

Losira sprinkles some pepper onto the tomatoes.

"But what I don't get is how you still thinking cooking is a chore when you've been through starvation before."

"Huh?"

"You said that you've starved, right?"

"Oh, yeah...well...that's because my mom and I fell on some hard times before. We went lots of nights going to bed hungry. The days when our shrine was destroyed altogether were the worst, though..."

"..."

"...I mean, I can tell you're kind of disappointed at me. I don't know why I don't take cooking more seriously either, in a gratitude kind of sense. It's just...how I came to think of it. It's not really a big deal to me anymore, because that's the past."

"'Disappointed' is an understatement."

Losira's voice turns sharply sour.

"I get the whole 'we're different people with different situations' kind of deal, but as much as I know we're two different girls, I can't help but think you're an ungrateful bitch."

"Huh...? Well...why?"

Losira shuts off the oven and turns to face Reimu, leaning against her stove and wiping her hands of oil with a towel.

"You think starvation's just something you experience and let go saying 'Oh, it's just the past'? There are hundreds of thousands of people around the world who're starving right now, and if you're really one of them, is it really possible for you to have that kind of attitude? I find it extremely hard to take you seriously, Reimu."

Reimu narrows her eyes and tosses the empty water bottle at the recycling bin. "So what's it to you? That you think I'm an ungrateful bitch? I wasn't trying to be ungrateful to you, either. Just because I don't give as much of a shit about starving once before as you do doesn't mean you can just judge me like that."

The miko crosses her arms with a frown.

"So if you think so passionately about going hungry, why don't you go out there and solve world hunger or whatever they call it here? You said that hundreds of thousands of people or whatever are starving right now? Then go feed 'em all, if you think you're such a saint!"

"Nah, I pass," Losira mumbles nonchalantly, filling their plates with food. "I've got my own agenda."

"...then why even bring them up?"

"Because considering what starvation does to people, I'd've expected you to take it a little more seriously."

"Oh, so now you're saying that there's some sort of...correct way of approaching the whole idea of starvation? That me not caring about it as much as you do is somehow incorrect?"

"Not so much incorrect - just downright asshole-ish."

"...yeah, _okay_, how's that being an asshole..."

Reimu hears the loud smack of a palm being applied to Losira's face.

"...why are you facepalming?"

"...you know exactly why."

"Just because I choose to believe a certain way about a certain something? Is there something wrong with that?"

"I guess not..." Losira snorts sarcastically, dumping purple rice onto their plates. Reimu, unappreciative of the sarcasm, clicks her tongue, irritated by Losira's behavior.

"Deal with it, then."

"Hmmm? Say that again?"

"Deal with it."

Losira turns her gaze at Reimu, giving her a very dark and false smile.

"No breakfast for you."

"...haaah?"

Reimu gawks in disbelief at her host.

"I said, no breakfast for you."

Losira takes only two plates with her and swiftly exits the kitchen for the dinner table, leaving Reimu gaping after her.

"W-Wait, why? ! What'd I do to -"

Losira's voice trails from the dinner table into the kitchen. "Deal with it."

"Bullshit, you're just mad, that's all it is!"

Losira then gives a sharp laugh, full of bitterness and amusement. "Learn to take a joke, will ya? I'm not gonna get salty over someone's opinion on something. C'mon, your plate's still there in the kitchen, bring it over here."

Reimu sits at the table with her plate of food, across from Losira. "How should I've known if you were serious or not?" She mutters, taking the sandwich with her hand and biting a mighty chunk out of it.

"Nah, I was being pretty serious. I feel quite strongly about starvation because I've felt it before. And, to be honest -" Losira also bites into her sandwich much in the same manner as Reimu's - "I think I'd be the same as you if I never knew what starvation was like. I wouldn't give a shit either."

"Hey, don't go sounding as if I'm some sort of villain just for thinking what I want. You're trying to make me sound all evil and stuff."

"Perception's a bitch, isn't it."

"It's not even that. When I say cooking is a chore, I say it not 'cause I really don't care about my own days of going hungry, but because I think more of the present, what I'm doing right now."

"You don't let the past bother you much."

"Couldn't have said it better myself."

They eat for a minute without talking.

"I'll go out on a limb and say you're the type to think a lot about the past, right?" Reimu asks, with a slight hint of timidness.

Losira does not answer right away, letting the juice from the tomato seep in between the rows of her teeth. "Sometimes. I definitely don't like dwelling on it longer than I have to, that's for sure."

The two girls finish their breakfast and clear the table of their plates. Dumping them back into the sink, Losira glances at the clock outside of the kitchen.

"9:16...let's go wake up your friend, she's been in my bed for too long."

Reimu groans, embarrassed by her youkai companion's hefty sleeping habits, and they trudge up the stairs into the master bedroom. Sure enough, Yukari is still gently snoring the passing minutes away.

"I really hope she's not like this every day."

"She is, that's the thing."

"Fucking goddamn it."

"Sorry."

"Nah, I was exaggerating that. But still, if you two wanna save Gensokyou with such urgency, sleepin' in someone else's canopy bed for nearly nine hours isn't exactly the way to do it." Losira picks up one of her animal plushies, a black cat, and starts to smother Yukari's face with it.

"...mmmfff...mffpfpfhfhhff...waaa...who..."

The sukima youkai opens one sleepy and slightly harassed eye at the thing that is cutting off her breathing.

"...oh...Chen...it's...just you..."

Yukari simply stares at the black cat toy, then rolls over onto her left arm and snoozes again.

"WAKE UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPP! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !"

Losira, having enough of Yukari's shit, tosses the black cat plushie over her shoulder, grabs hold of the bedsheets, and hurls it away from Yukari, who lets out a small shriek at the sudden shrill yell of the eyepatch girl. Picking up Yukari who is a good half a foot taller than her by the ankles and shoulderblades, Losira dumps her on the ground in front of the wardrobe, rips off Yukari's nightclothes, tosses them back into the wardrobe, and forces Yukari into a set set of clothes for the day.

"I've made breakfast already, Yukari, so eat and get ready to leave by 10. I need to make a call, so I'll be with you two in a second."

Losira quickly storms out of her own room, leaving Yukari still sleepily oblivious to all of the most recent events that have occurred. She blinks slowly at her Abercrombie shirt.

"Good morning, your Majesty," Reimu giggles as she walks over to Yukari. "It seems Losira doesn't like people being lazy, haha!"

"..."

Yukari begins to careen backwards, but Reimu swiftly kneels and catches her before Yukari can touch the carpet. "Now's probably not the best time to go back to sleep, Yukari, just saying."

After a few minutes, Yukari rubs her eyes. "...I am not accustomed to waking so early..."

Reimu scowls at her. "It's barely half past nine and you're bitching about how it's early? I get up two hours before this back home, now quit your whining and come down to eat."

"Waaaahhhh...Raaaannnnn, Reimu's being mean to meeeeee..."

"Ran's not even here with us! ! ! !"

Reimu leads Yukari downstairs, and they sit at the table, where Losira has already placed Yukari's breakfast plate.

"My, my, how considerate of her."

"Just hurry up and eat, we don't have much time, considering how long you normally take to eat..."

As Yukari consumes her breakfast, Reimu, sitting next to the sukima youkai, lets her eyes wander again.

"Oh...I forgot she left that jewel thing down here still..."

The Beta Block still floats with soft, dull white essence above the glass table where they had first talked and forged their alliance. Yukari gazes at it as well.

"It is a wonder, that something as small as that jewel is able to cause such a disturbance to the Dai Kekkai, is it not?"

"...it's probably not just that Beta Block alone. I feel like you'd need to have a substantial amount in order for the Dai Kekkai to malfunction."

"Still, it is astonishing to consider that such a small entity has the power that is causing us this incident."

"You know, we don't know for sure if it's serenity that's causing those holes in the Dai Kekkai."

"Then what else could it be?"

"I don't know, but I'm just saying, we shouldn't just assume that right away."

The two girls gaze at the jewel until Yukari finishes her breakfast sandwich.

"Perhaps I ought to have Ran take some cooking lessons from this girl. Eating Japanese style meals everyday does get a little tiresome, after all."

"She'll throw a fit, you know."

"How so?" Yukari takes her plate and puts it in the kitchen sink, Reimu following close behind.

"It's your own damn shikigami, and you don't know how she acts? She's gonna think she's not good enough for you and start crying over it!"

"Oh, she gets over it within a day's time or so, it is no big matter."

"And you do realize that it's me she comes all whining and crying, begging me to teach her how to cook other kinds of dishes?"

Yukari conveniently dodges the question, humming cheerfully to herself, as the front door creaks shut and Losira walks back to the dinner table to join them.

"Mkay, so here's today's agenda. I'm going to drive us down to a gun range I go to pretty often, and I'll train you in using guns. Afterwards, I'm going to introduce you to the team that I mentioned that collects Beta Blocks from me. They're close associates of mine, so they can be trusted. They were supposed to feed me more info that they've scrounged out of their research for the past couple of weeks today, so this is nice timing on your part. They'll explain everything they know so far about serenity, and maybe you can learn something that'll help you."

Yukari and Reimu nod. "How long will this training take? Reimu asks.

"All day, pretty much."

"Are you serious? !" Reimu scratches her head violently in frustration. "Come on, we're not here to learn anything besides what we need to know to fix the Dai Kekkai!"

"Then I'll drive you two back to that parking lot and see you off; hopefully you'll find your answers there. That sound fine to you?" This sharp retort shuts Reimu up immediately, though she still sulks. "I'm going out of my way to do as much as I can for you two, something that I almost never do for just anyone I meet off the street, and I really don't need to deal with a shit attitude like that."

"Then why are you, then? We never asked you."

"Because I can tell that you're not bullshitting me. If you were, I'd've known right when I saw you two. Your clothes should be done drying, so I'll get 'em so you can change. We'll leave in five minutes, give or take a couple."

Some four minutes later, Losira is standing in front of her computer office desk. She tightly fastens her leather pistol holster onto her belt, making sure her Colt M1911 MEU has its safety switch on and is ready to fire. She tightens her auburn necktie, adjusts her knee-length dress skirt, and reaches into her business jacket's inner pocket, making sure that the Beta Block she has recovered the previous night is tucked safely away inside.

"..."

She walks over to the drawers in front of her room windows and holds up the picture of the two boys and lone girl.

"Ittekimasu."

Bringing the picture frame to her mouth, Losira presses her lips against the glass, partially warmed from the sunlight. It stares after her as she shuts the door behind her and descends the stairs to regroup with her guests.

"If y'all're ready to go, follow me," Losira calls as she walks straight past them down to the garage, putting on a pair of aviators from her formal jacket pocket.

Hakurei Reimu and Yakumo Yukari, in their clothes from the previous day, climb into Losira's Lamborghini, and the Aventador roars and backs out of the garage, whose door rolls down after it.

"So what's a gun range?" Reimu asks, sitting directly behind the driver. Yukari is sitting shotgun.

"It's a place where you practice shooting guns. Basically the place to go to learn gun shooting and what not. It's built specifically for that reason, and it's got a lot of rules that people need to follow to make sure there's no one going around blasting guns and killing people."

"I have studied the geography of this area, so may I ask the name of this gun range that is our destination?" Yukari glances over at the driver, who has unwrapped another Jolly Rancher lollipop from her dashboard and stuck in her mouth. Losira removes the candy to speak, manning the wheel with her left hand.

"Sharpshooter's, off Western."

* * *

Tucked away from plain sight of the major streets of Torrance, Sharpshooter's could easily be passed off as an ordinary warehouse or storage facility if there were no big red letters above the two security cameras eyeing the entrances and the Aventador as it pulls up into its small parking lot.

"We're here. Roll up the windows and let's roll."

The three ladies exit the vehicle, and Losira strolls in through the front door, raising her car remote and locking the vertical doors as soon as they click shut after Reimu and Yukari. The girls enter the compound to find a medium-sized rectangular room: on the walls stand two vending machines selling snacks and beverages, a large bulletproof window allowing vision into the gun range itself, posters advertising gun classes and the latest firearm technology, and a counter where a young man wearing a hat embroidered with the word_Sharpshooter's_ greets Losira casually. The rack behind the counter is stocked with all kinds of civilian firearms, ranging from handguns to shotguns. The counter itself and the display cases that are strewn about in the middle of the room also contain their own varieties of handguns and bigger civilian weapons. For a place that sells gunpowder-based weaponry, the room is almost completely devoid of the smell.

"Eeeyyyyy, sup, Losira? You haven't been down here in some time, where've ya been? Been gettin' pretty lonely down here, and by that, I mean both ways, hahahaha! !" the employee behind the counter laughs heartily as Losira scoffs at him coldy.

"I don't ever remember bein' the slut of this place, Damon. If anything, I'm the biggest bitch y'all're ever gonna have to deal with as long as I'm here."

"Oh, but that's already been our assumption ever since you started poppin' shells here!"

Losira approaches him and gives him a knuckle bump with her right hand. "Jokes aside, nice ta have ya back, for now, anyway. What'dya need today?" Damon leans against the bulletproof glass display counter and arcs his neck at Losira.

"I'll need your practice M9's. I'm here to train these two; I picked 'em up the other night, long story so don't ask," Losira mutters, thumbing over her shoulder to Yukari and Reimu, who stand there rather awkwardly in the middle of the room. Damon peers over at them.

"Holy fuck, normally if I see some hot chicks, I'd holla at 'em, ya know, give 'em the slip or some shit. But _these_ two? Where'dya go ta get yer hands on some sexy-ass assistants? You're not fuckin' lesbo, are you?" Damon whistles, stroking his small but neatly shaved mustache. Losira flicks his forehead.

"If I were lesbian, you'd be gay. Like I said, long story, don't ask. Just get me those guns, dude."

"Mkay, mkay, all I'm sayin', if you for some reason don't wanna work with 'em anymore, ya know, we could use a gal 'round here helpin' us out, y'know, in more ways than one -"

"I ain't standin' here to listen to your horny ass, Damon! Shut the fuck up and stop wastin' my time!" Losira barks at the gun range employee, who ducks in pretended fear into the back room.

"I'm jus' sayin'~! ! !" he yells from inside the back room, the sound of locked metal drawers being unlocked and opened.

"Yeah, yeah, give yourself a quickie in there while you're at it!"

"But why? !"

"So you don't talk like that when I've got company along!"

"What does it matter, there's no one else here!"

Losira sighs exasperatedly and leans against the counter herself, facing Reimu and Yukari. "Sorry, bit of an awkward convo, but it's how I get along with the peeps here."

"But why'd he call us...'sexy-ass'...ughhh, I don't understand English colloquialism..." Reimu just stands there, confused by Losira's discourse with the man.

"You really need to get a hold of your own looks, Reimu. Do you even meet a lot of guys back in Gensokyou?" Losira says, almost condescendingly.

"Er, no...not really..."

"The last time she has even seen a man was three months ago, prior to our entry into Earth yesterday," Yukari gloats.

"That's pathetic." Losira facepalms and Reimu hisses at Yukari, who is pulling a rich lady's laugh, trolling Reimu even further. Damon soon emerges from the back room with two black bulletproof cases and stacks them onto the counter.

"Here ya go. They're assembled 'n ready to go."

"They been cleaned? You know I'm a stickler for maintenance 'n shit."

"Duh. It's you I've gotta deal with here."

"Damn straight. We'll be a while, so stock up some ammo for me."

"Which kinds?"

"Training 9mm's and live."

"We should have 'em, so holla at me once you need 'em."

"Sounds good, I'll drop the dosh once we leave."

"You know you don't have to, right? You've already done enough for my boss. Actually, there's no physical way he can pay you back for what you did for us."

"Shut up and take my money," Losira sneers in a lighthearted tone as she opens the gun cases and inspects the products. "Since I get to do what I want 'round here 'cause I made all of you my bitches, I'ma pay for the ammo I'm burnin' because I feel like it, problem?"

"Hey, jus' sayin', but..."

Damon leans in to whisper discreetly into Losira's left ear.

"That dark-haired chick, she looks basically the same like ya. You two related, or know each other, 'r somethin'?"

"..."

Losira glances over at Reimu, who is chatting with Yukari as they wait.

"No idea. I can't deny she looks exactly like me. But I didn't know 'er until last night."

"So you are lesbo."

Losira puts her left hand on the top of Damon's hair and pushes his face into the glass countertop.

"I think putting a bullet in this dumbass brain here'll solve all my problems."

"I-I can assure ya that's a real bad idea."

"How so?"

"'cause the world needs me. It can't do without a Damon Haggsworth."

"_I _can do without a Damon Haggsworth." Losira takes her hand off Damon's head. "But I get whatcha mean. It's almost disturbing how similar we look."

"Yeah, totally. I jus' feel like there's somethin' between ya, even if neither of ya know it yet."

"Wow, Damon, I never took you to be a superstitious type."

"Jus' lookin' out fer ya, Losira."

"Why, how considerate of you."

"In case I want some head from you later, that is."

Losira strikes Damon's left cheek with the back of her left hand, pimpslapping him with a sound like a gunshot. As Damon grovels on the floor behind the counter, the eyepatch gunslinger snaps her fingers at Yukari and Reimu, beckoning at them to follow her into a separate lecture room at the corner of the compound. They pile into the surprisingly spacious lecture room, a makeshift classroom with cheap chairs strewn everywhere in front of a whiteboard that is hanging at an odd angle on the wall.

"Just need to explain the basics of firearm discipline 'n shit like that, explain protocol here and whatever, so sit down and listen to me drone on about this crap," Losira blabbers nonchalantly. Reimu and Yukari seat themselves in the seats directly in front of Losira.

"Mkay, to start, rules of this gun range."

Losira takes the black marker sitting on the whiteboard marker rack and starts scribbling in fast but neat handwriting.

"First rule: Unless you're inside the actual gun range itself, don't have a gun out. Purely safety reasons. We don't give two shits if it's got its safety on, or if it's got parts missing, or if it's unloaded, or if you're trying to blow your own brains out. Don't have it out, period, unless you can, like me."

"Um...blow your own brains out...?" Reimu squints her eyes in a "huh, what" moment.

"We had someone try to commit suicide here. Don't ask. Anyway, only exceptions to this rule is if we're getting attacked or robbed for whatever goddamn reason or if there's a zombie apocalypse, by which point rules wouldn't exist anyhow."

"Zombie apocalypse...?"

"Trying to cover everything here. Next rule, never point a gun at anyone, ever. Unless you're me. No one knows if you've still got a bullet in your chamber. Maybe even you don't even know. Part of gun etiquette, but it's part of our rules here too because people are stupid sometimes. No, actually, all the time. So don't be stupid and don't do it."

The whiteboard rocks back and forth as her marker scrapes against it.

"Next...if you can't bring it to an airport, you can't bring it here. List is on the other wall over there, too lazy to go through specifics."

Yukari and Reimu narrow their eyes at the whiteboard. Although Losira's handwriting is like calligraphy, the drawings that she also sketches to accompany them are very horribly drawn.

"Final rule, if you see the owner of this place, give 'im a Heineken, and you can shoot all the bullets ya want here."

"Why is there a rule like that?"

"Hey, these ain't my rules."

"And what's up with your drawings?"

"What about 'em?"

"Well...they suck."

Reimu dodges the marker that Losira chucks at her.

"Shut up! I know they're bad, so what if they are! ?"

Yukari and Reimu snigger, much to Losira's angry embarrassment. Sighing, Losira tosses them two pairs of soundproof earphones and two mics.

"Put the mics - the smaller ones - into your ears. It's labeled left 'n right. Put the bigger headphones over them, it'll block out the sounds of the guns while we're inside so we don't blast our ears out. Once you've done that, follow me to the doors."

Losira picks up the two gun cases again and trudges out of the room. Yukari fiddles with the mics and heavy earphones, and Reimu, with her own equipment already placed appropriately, helps Yukari with hers.

"I do not understand this strange apparatus..." Yukari mumbles as Reimu flips down her mouthpiece.

"Old women usually don't understand technology, after all."

"But I'm not old."

"Compared to normal humans, they'd think how you're not a pile of bones already."

"What about my hat?"

"Dunno. Take it off, I guess."

Yukari removes her hat so Reimu can snap the heavy headphones in place and carries it with her to meet up with Losira again in front of the first of two heavy bulletproof steel doors that lead into the gun range.

"There's a counter inside, so you can put your hat in there. Just don't forget about it when we leave," Losira points to Yukari's hat as she pushes open the door. They cram inside the tight containment space, the first door sliding slowly shut before Losira opens the second. The residual smell of gunpowder, absent from the other rooms, is very apparent within the gun range itself.

"Can you hear me? These earphones are military-grade noise cancelling, so if you can't hear me, tap me on the shoulder 'r somethin'," Losira says, her voice having turned metallic and staticky. Yukari and Reimu nod, the sukima youkai still tampering with her equipment to make them fit as comfortably as possible. Losira clicks open the two black gun cases again and presents its treasures within to the two residents of Gensokyou.

"Today, we're only gonna worry 'bout shooting. I'll teach you the actual parts later tonight or something and field strippin' 'em, so for today, if you have any problems like gun jams, just ask me. Now..."

Losira quickly assembles the two handguns and sets one on the counter with the other in her hands for demonstration.

"This is called a Beretta M9 pistol. It's an easy gun to use because of its low recoil and easy to practice with since it shoots 9mm's, which're real cheap. At least, compared the other ammo types. Fifteen rounds, clean iron sights. Should come naturally once I show you how to actually shoot the thing." Losira shifts her body so they can see the weapon at a better angle, and she starts pointing at various gun parts. "Here's what you need to know right now: grip, where you hold the gun with whichever's your dominant hand; magazine release, the button you press when you're out of ammo; safety, button to press when you're done shooting and don't wanna pop a cap in anyone else; slide release, you push down on it like this to throw the slide, I'll explain how it works when we actually shoot; trigger, the thing you pull to fire; iron sights, line 'em up on the thing you wanna hit; muzzle, where the bullet comes out of; trigger guard, makes sure your trigger doesn't get pulled by anything on accident; and finally, the magazine, the thing that holds your bullets."

Reimu's eyes follow with sharp precision as Losira slaps the magazine back in and racks the slide to chamber a bullet.

"Now follow me, I've got a target set up on the far booth for one of you to practice on."

They walk over to the furthest booth away from the double steel doors, and Losira sends the paper target downrange with a flip of a switch on the panel inside the booth.

"Watch my body posture and the way I hold my gun. Note angles at which my elbows are bent. This is standard firing procedure, you'll need to get this down right before you go anywhere with a gun."

Once the target is some twenty five meters away, Losira opens fire. The sharp clacks, dulled by the soundproof earphones but still very audible, reverberate within the once-silent gun range, and fifteen bullet casings are ejected from the pistol slide. Once all rounds are spent, Losira hits another switch to bring the target back and faces Reimu and Yukari with her gun.

"Once you've fired all rounds, press the magazine catch, take out the mag, and set it on the table. The magazine'll either fall out by itself, or it'll get caught inside so you'll have to pull it out manually. Either way, do that, and start loadin' up the magazine again. I'll give you boxes of ammo, so don't worry about wasting any." Losira sets down the gun and the ejected magazine and opens up a box of 9mm training rounds. "9mm's are bigger than you think, so they're easy to load into a mag. Take a bullet, hold the mag firmly, and push down. It'll lock the bullet in place by itself, so just keep doing it until you've got 15 stocked up in there, then it can't take any more."

Losira smacks the fully loaded magazine back into the gun and throws the slide, glancing at the target she fired at.

"This is what you're aiming for. A tight group. Doesn't matter where for now; if you can do this, your aim is good for the time being," Losira says, pointing at the very small group of rips in the paper in the head region. She sends the target downrange again and commences shooting once more until the gun jams.

"This'll happen a lot; it's called a gun jam, caused by a malfunction in the gun ejection system. Sometimes it's the gun's fault, sometimes it's your fault for not cleaning the thing. These guns've been around here for years, so they're not in the best of shapes no matter how well they're cleaned. Most of the time, you can get rid of these jams by pulling back on the slide, and the casing should pop right out." Losira yanks the slide back, and the casing jumps out in sync. She quickly fires the remaining rounds with her left hand at the target and releases the magazine again.

"That's basically it. Just remember that even though these're training rounds, they'll still hurt like a bitch if you shoot anyone, so remember our rules here and don't point those things at anyone unless you wanna kill 'em for a good reason. Either point 'em downwards or downrange. The word 'up' isn't allowed here."

"Excuse me, but for how long will we be doing this...?" Yukari inquires, Losira handing her the second Beretta M9.

"Until you can pull off what I just did. I'll get you more targets and ammo, so go ahead and practice. Good shootin'."

* * *

Some eight hours later...

"How's your target lookin', Yukari?"

Reimu exhales deeply out of exhaustion, her brow brimming with sweat. She leans against Yukari's booth, watching the tall straw-blonde woman fire her last round from her M9.

"Oh dear...this is certainly much more tiring than what it seems," Yukari sighs as well, taking the handkerchief that Reimu hands her and wipes her own forehead while she pulls back on the lever that draws her paper target back to her. "Though, at the same time, it is certainly very interesting."

"It's weird. It's kinda like danmaku, except we can't see the bullets 'cause they fly so fast."

"And that they are almost always lethal."

"That too. But the control is basically the same. These gun things are like what our control over danmaku would look like if they were given form, you know?"

"I understand your sentiment. The mechanics seem to be very similar. Perhaps these guns and bullets are to our own danmaku back home in Gensokyou."

"Well, we've always known there've been parallels between Gensokyou and Earth, so I don't find this surprising."

"Neither do I. What I do find surprising, however, is my aim."

Reimu and Yukari peer at Yukari's target. Her cluster of bullet holes closely resembles Losira's from earlier that day during her demonstration.

"Comes naturally, doesn't it?"

"Apparently so."

"But what gets me thinking is what happens when we get into a fight with these. How do you fight back?"

"...I suppose whoever connects the first shot would be the victor."

"I guess..."

"Mannnn...and why do they have to be so heavy? When we first started, I didn't think they'd wear me out to this point...we've been at this for like seven or eight hours now..."

"It is no doubt tiring, but our friend seems not to mind. She has been practicing alongside us with no word of complaint."

They glance over to the next booth, where Losira is one-handing a Five-seveN with her left hand.

"Well, she's already a pro at this. Didn't you see her take out all those guys yesterday?"

"You need to learn discipline from her. You always slack during your training in your shrine, after all."

"But that's because I already know danmaku inside and out; I'm the one who invented it, damn it. This stuff I take more seriously right now since I know nothing about it. And now that I do -"

"There is no harm in more training."

"There _is_."

"How so?"

"I'm tired and hungry."

"So am I, but you do not see me whining about it."

"Shut up."

Losira fires her last bullet and pops out her spent magazine, setting her weapon and magazine on the counter of the booth.

"Lemme see how much you've gotten done so far. You've collected your targets like I told you to, right?"

Reimu and Yukari hand Losira their paper targets, and she inspects them, her black left eye scanning each one as a few other occupied booths erupt in gunfire.

"You guys naturals 'r somethin'? Eight hours of practice and you're already this good?" Losira wonders aloud, stacking the papers together.

"You remember the ofuda I used on you last night? Those things are like our bullets in Gensokyou, you know," Reimu says, putting her hands behind her head and hairbow.

"Yeah, I know. Whatever; faster you learn, better for me. Alright; we're gonna go grab some dinner and meet up with the guys I mentioned we'd meet earlier this morning."

Reimu cheers the imminence of the acquisition of food.

"Who exactly are these people we will be meeting?" Yukari inquires.

"I told you, associates of mine, the guys I work with. These're professionals I'm talkin' about here, an active military squad, that is."

"Military squad?" Reimu asks as she puts away her gun into its case.

"Seal Team 6."


	4. AK-47

"Well, that was fast."

"See? I told you it wasn't that far."

Losira, Reimu, and Yukari climb out of the Aventador as Losira watches the vertical doors close shut.

"Mitsuwa Marketplace...so they do have Japanese-style shopping malls here," Yukari notes while adjusting her hat.

"Doesn't have to be Japan to have Japanese places here. It's America we're in, especially here in Cali," Losira responds, leading them into the mart's automatic sliding doors. "The food court is this way."

They enter the nearly-empty food court, which is entering its last hours of operation for the day. There, in one of the tables closest to a noodle shop, sit two men about the same age as Losira. One is wearing a dark gray trench coat, navy blue track pants, some bandages around his forehead, Bose headphones, and a black visor, while the other has on a blue t-shirt with a logo consisting of an M4A1 and an AK-47 and characters _ST6_ printed on the back, army jeans, sunglasses, and earbuds. Upon seeing Losira and company, both men turn in their seats and wave at them.

"Yo, Losira!"

"Sup, you two. Miss me?"

The guy with the sunglasses stands to high-five Losira as they greet them at the table.

"These the gals ya mentioned, right?"

"Yup, they're them. We haven't eaten anything, so let us grab something first."

"Oh yeah, 'course. We're waiting on our food too-"

"Order number 7011, your meal's ready!" the noodle shop worker behind the cashier calls, with a tray of kitsune udon.

"Oh, there's mine. Lookin' forward to this~"

As the sunglasses man gets his food, Reimu and Yukari seat themselves on wooden chairs across from the sitting boy in the visor.

"Yo, whaddya two want? It's on me," Losira offers, pointing at the menu that is plastered onto the bamboo at the bottom of the shop. Reimu and Yukari turn to select their dinners.

"Ehhhh...I'll get the teriyaki udon," Reimu chooses.

"The seasoned shabu shabu and beef combo for me," Yukari says cheerfully, looking forward to a delicious dinner.

"Mkay, it'll take a few minutes." Losira takes their orders and approaches the counter to place them. The guy in the sunglasses returns to their six-man table and sits next to his buddy.

"Yo. Intros, intros, right? I'm Sanford, he's Deimos," Sanford thumbs to his right, and Deimos silently tips his visor. "You're the two Losira mentioned, huh?"

Reimu nods. "I'm Reimu Hakurei, and she's Yukari Yakumo. We're friends, and we've come here from Gensokyou."

Deimos speaks in a low but soft voice. "Gensokyou? That other world we've heard about from Losira from time to time? So there really are people over there, huh."

"Predominantly humans and youkai, but there are other populations, yes," Yukari answers.

"You a youkai, or human?"

"I am youkai. My companion here is human."

"Interestin'. Nice ta meet you."

"The pleasure is mine."

Losira slides into her own seat next to Reimu, who sits in between Yukari and Losira. "Why don'tcha eat up? It's gonna get cold, ya know."

"Hey, man, it ain't polite ta just start eating in front of guests," Sanford retorts, raising his sunglasses to perch them on his eyebrows. "And of all people, you should know that, you're the one who brought 'em!"

"Yeah, yeah, fuck you too. Alright, lemme do proper intros 'cause you two suck at 'em."

"Lolwat? We do better intros than you, Mrs. 'Kill-On-Sight-Because-That's-How-I-Meet-People'!" Deimos spits sarcastically, but Losira smoothly ignores this.

"That's Sanford, that's Deimos. That's what their ID handles are as well. They're two of the guys from Seal Team 6, which, like I told you, is the team I work with to get the Beta Blocks."

"You told 'em 'bout the Beta Blocks, right?" Sanford asks to double-check.

"Duh, asshole, ya thinkin' I'm some third-rate amateur 'r somethin'?"

"Whoa whoa whoa, no need to take it _that_ far." Sanford feigns surprise at Losira's biting words.

"You'll get to meet the rest of the team later, but these two're the ones who agreed to meet us out here. They usually work together for most jobs anyway, so it's fitting. Hey, when're you two gettin' a marriage license?"

"Uh, Losira, lemme just remind you this is Cali we're in right now, they don't recognize gay marriages just yet," Deimos says while facepalming.

"Well then just move outta state and you're fine, aren't ya?"

"We'll be getting one as soon as you let us have a threesome," Sanford points his disposable wooden chopsticks at Losira.

"Yeaaaaaah, no, asshat. Besides, that'll ruin the point of you getting a license."

"That's the goddamn point."

Losira sighs. "Sorry that the people I work with are complete retards, you two," She apologizes, shrugging with a flair. "They're in the military, so it's too bad they don't meet girls too often, ain't that right?"

"Dude, Losira, you're not seriously forgetting about Kane or Lauren, are you?" Deimos shakes his head in disappointment.

"Ha, ha, ha. Look, I know how to laugh without really meaning it, guys. You bloody fail at sarcasm, Deimos, you need to work at it."

"You're English now? Why're you throwing English insults at me?"

"What does that have anything to do with being English?"

"Never mind."

"Order numbers 7012, 7013, 7014, and 7015, your food's ready!"

They bring their food to the table. The girls all mutter "Itadakimasu!" as the boys silently dig in.

"So what've you boys been up to? We haven't talked in weeks 'til I hit y'all up for tonight."

Deimos slurps on some udon. "We got shipped over to Brazil, had to clear up some biker gang shit going down in the Rio. It was gettin' to the point where seventeen-year-olds were pullin' Glocks on random bikers on the damn highways, not giving a single fuck, ridiculous crap like that."

"That's how you _know_ they ain't professional gangsters! Who the hell mugs people for their hand-me-down bikes that they probably only got for a hundred bucks at some shady-ass dealer? I was jus' shakin' my head the entire time we were there, man!" Sanford bursts out laughing. "But yeah, the sitrep down there was real bad when we came. Apparently, some of the police officers got fed up with 'em bikers that they jus' started takin' authority into their own hands; if they saw anyone try to pull of any grand theft auto shit, boom, shoot 'em dead."

"I bet those bikers didn't like their guys gettin' shot by the police, then?" Losira holds some smoking hot Korean barbequed short ribs in her chopsticks.

"Hell no. The government almost had to declare martial law on the cap. Mind you, the bikers only operated out of the Rio, so it wasn't like a national thing," Sanford replies.

"How long did it take you?"

"A week to dig out the bikers, half of another to eliminate." Deimos says coolly. Losira whistles.

"Nicely done."

"Whoa there, you ain't one to be dishin' out complements now, are you?" Sanford feigns surprise at Losira's uncharacteristically kind words as she glares him in disbelief.

"What the fuck was that? I say you did a good job and you're actin' all surprised? Is this what I have to work with?"

"You realize just now, after like, eight years? Damn, girl, thought you were smarter than that," Deimos snorts, and Sanford is unable to contain his hoots of laughter.

"Fine, I get it, fuck you two." Losira gives a small _hmph!_ and fakes a pout while gnashing her teeth on her short ribs and fried rice. Sanford glances over at Yukari and Reimu who are listening to their conversation intently.

"So you said you picked these two up 'just the other day'...what exactly did you mean by that? You didn't elaborate very well, ya know, that call you gave me today wasn't very clear."

"Okay, I'll say it only once more, you dumb dipshit. Last night, I ran into them while grabbin' that Beta Block Lauren tipped me off on -"

"Oh, speaking of which, you have that Block on you right now, right?" Deimos interrupts.

"Yes, I do, don't fuckin' interrupt me, jerk."

"Just checkin'."

"So yeah, I got the block 'n dragged these two over to my place 'cause I noticed they've got energy signatures."

"When you say energy signatures, you mean ones like ours, right?"

"Yeah, except theirs are a lot more developed than yours' because they're from Gensokyou, where they use magic on a daily basis."

Yukari interjects. "Reimu here is an exception, as she does nothing except eat rice crackers and drink tea in her shrine all day."

Reimu nearly crashes her face into her bowl of curry rice as the men chuckle. "Says the bitch who gets her ass handed to her whenever we spar! ! !"

Yukari uses her superior height to stare down at Reimu smugly and threateningly. "Oh, but those are but only danmaku spars...I do not believe we have battled using our true powers...?"

"You can't beat a Hakurei shrine maiden and you know it! You've even admitted it yourself!"

"Perhaps not your mother or your previous, more accomplished predecessors. You, however, on the other hand, are irrelevant."

Reimu narrows her own eyes in the same manner as Deimos whistles and mutters "Damn, she just called you irrelevant".

"Irrelevant, huh? You sure you don't want a tombstone on your forehead the next time you go to sleep? I conduct burials too, in case you forgot."

Yukari ignores her smoothly as she centers her attention onto the members of Seal Team 6.

"Losira here has merely introduced you to us as members of this group named 'Seal Team 6', but nothing else. Perhaps you could elaborate more on this subject for us, as we have done the same?"

Sanford, apparently a fast eater, downs the last of his udon soup and chases it with a chug of water. "Yo Deimos, should I tell 'em now or wait 'til we get to base?"

"Your call. If this place was packed, it'd be a problem, but there's basically no one here if you speak low. I'll scan for any eavesdroppers."

"Losira?"

"You can give 'em the basic rundown, but leave the shit for Lauren and the rest of the gang to explain."

"Hmm..." Sanford leans back on his bench and crosses his arms, thinking about how much he says is appropriate. He then sits up and leans forward.

"I got it. So, as Losira's already told you, we're Losira's business partners, in all technicality. Me 'n Deimos're part of a branch of the US military called Seal Team 6; I can't divulge our specifics, but that's all you need to know anyway. Seal Team 6 is composed of people like Losira - we've all got some kind of supernatural power that sets us apart from normal humans. Naturally, 'cause of that, the government wants us to go after highly classified business that they can't ever have their military go after because if they did ask that, our government'd actually show the public that they really are nothing but a bunch 'a crackhead idiots."

"Like Losira? Then why isn't Losira part of your team?" Reimu asks, slurping on some Coke.

"Personal reasons, I can't tell you that, sorry. If you really wanna know that, you're better off asking the girl herself, since if I say anythin', she's sure to rip my balls off."

"You got that fucking right, faggot," Losira growls, her voice tinted an unusual shade of harsh, much more than her previous banter.

"Point proven. Anyway, that aside, our role in this whole Beta Block business is basically to aid Losira here as much as we can in collecting these Beta Blocks, receive them from 'er when she does get 'em, and research 'n analyze them, whatever we can do to learn more 'bout 'em."

Deimos also speaks out in his usual low, quiet but dominant voice. "Superfluously, our objective is to learn the full potential of the energy source that we've dubbed 'serenity' so we can further implement it into our technology and society. For example, we're aware of the medical possibilities of serenity, since you can have someone with a major energy signature, or 'Majors', heal an injury, no matter how severe, if they manipulate the serenity using their own signature."

"I showed them that when I healed Yukari's hand after she got shot there," Losira says.

"There you have it, then. Stuff like that is what we want to know. Obviously we've already known enough about it to generate fuel out of it for our cars, heaters, 'n electricity, but it's not all that serenity can do. Theoretically speaking, serenity is all that humanity really needs. It's basically a God resource. No matter how fast we use the stuff from our Alpha Block sources, it generates right back overnight. We don't know how it replenishes so fast, or how it ever replenishes in the first place, but it does. Its efficiency is near perfect, and I really do think that if we know a lot more about it, humanity's set for eternity, at least until our Sun blows the fuck up." Deimos takes a long drink of Sprite. "And that's exactly why I'm worried. It's gotta have drawbacks, even if we can't see them yet. There's no such thing as a God resource, no matter how much serenity seems to be one. Me personally, I'm studying this to know the negative consequences of us using this thing."

"We believe that we know what those negative consequences of serenity are doing," Yukari says.

"You think so?"

"To put it briefly, in Gensokyou, there is a border that acts much like your ozone layer here on Earth that her ancestors and I have created to separate Gensokyou apart from this world and protect it from Earth's influences. Recently, it has shown signs of deterioration in some places at rates that are much higher than the norm, and worst of all, we cannot repair it from Gensokyou."

"Which is why you're here with us, I'm guessin'," Sanford says.

"That is correct. We believe that serenity is what's causing the Dai Kekkai, the name of our border, to degenerate. We, in working with Losira, are hoping to receive your cooperation as well."

"Heh. Normally we wouldn't work with randos, but Losira did tell us that you two were exceptions. Jus' gonna throw that one out there, nothin' 'gainst you two," Sanford clarifies.

"Rando?" Reimu looks confused.

"Don't worry about it, Reimu, he's an idiot," Losira mentions casually, finishing the rest of her meal.

"_Anyway_..." Sanford gives a false smile to Losira who returns it with a "bitch please" glance. "I'd tell you how far we've gotten on our research and fill you in on more info behind this Beta Block business, but here's not the best place to do it, even if there ain't a lot of people around. Can't take the risk of someone overhearin' us. Besides, since you'll be working with Losira for what I'm guessin' is an extended period 'a time, it's better off you meet the rest of the team so we all get to know each other a lil' bit."

Deimos stands up from his seat. "I'll agree on that. Losira, let's continue this back at base. You know the way, right?"

Losira also stands, chugging the rest of her soft drink. "Yeah, still do, how'd I forget? Oh, you two, just leave the trays here, the people who work here'll clear 'em for us." Yukari and Reimu nod.

"Right, right. C'mon, Sanford, get up, gotta get back to work."

"Yeah, yeah..."

Everyone gets up.

"Losira, hold up, I gotta give you the slip 'bout somethin'," Deimos nods at Losira.

"Oh, is it _that_?" Sanford, quickly becoming serious-faced, immediately gets up and walks over to Losira with Deimos, who nods back.

"You two, could you leave us alone for a quick minute?" Losira asks the girls.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure..." Reimu says, and she and Yukari wander away from the food court, strolling slowly through the grocery section of the Japanese marketplace. Losira, Deimos, and Sanford watch them walk away, and once they are out of earshot, Deimos speaks first.

"Losira, it's about your brother."

Losira's left eye immediately widens.

"He says he wants to see you again."

"When?"

"Just anytime, he said. It's not urgent," Sanford mutters, pulling out a small black logo-less tablet and fiddling with it. "Though, I don't think we need to tell you what happens if you don't visit him when he asks."

"..."

Losira's usual fierce, assertive facade is gone. A strangely pained one, instead, takes it place, like a bull in a china shop.

"Dude, Sanford, fucking shut up, you know how serious she takes this."

"I know, I know. Didn't mean to act the asshole here, but considerin' what he did before when Losira was busy..." Sanford shakes his head. "Don't wanna have to be in charge of the cleanup crew after that fuckin' mess again."

"He's still alright as usual, right? Nothing out of the ordinary?" Losira asks, almost meekly.

"Nope, nothing's wrong. Not right now, anyway," Deimos says, pulling out a pack of Marlboros and sticking a cigarette in between his teeth.

"Dude, don't fucking smoke _inside_, asswipe," Sanford scolds.

"I'm not even lighting it, dude, chill, fuckface."

"I'll visit him tomorrow, then," Losira concludes. "C'mon, they're waiting for us."

The three of them also exit the food court. "But isn't it a bit too early for him to be asking to see you again, though?" Deimos ponders. "Normally, on average, you'd only need to see him every two weeks or so. But the last time you visited him was three days ago."

"Dude, it's not like this hasn't happened before," Sanford shrugs. "I mean, it's David we're talkin' 'bout here."

"Does it fucking matter how often he asks me to come?" Losira growls, almost as if in pain. "All you two dipshits need to worry about is to let me know whenever he wants me to come over, and I'll be there no matter what. You two know full well that if I could, I'd fucking live there if I needed to."

They exit the automatic sliding doors. Losira spots Reimu and Yukari hanging by her car and waves at them, and they wave back. "I'll follow you to base with 'em. Let's make this quick, we're all pretty tired already, now that we've eaten dinner, on top of us going through eight straight hours of shooting."

"Yeah. We'll see you there, then," Sanford calls to her as he and Deimos, who pulls out their car keys and a lighter, walk away to the opposite end of the lot. "By the way, Deimos, when're you ever gonna kick the damn habit, bro?"

"None 'a your business, fuckface."

"You're gonna kill me 'cause 'a secondhand smoke in ten years!"

"You'll be dead by then."

"Doesn't that concern you? !"

"I wasn't aware that it was supposed to."

Losira bursts out laughing, catching everyone's attention.

"The fuck's so funny, bitch? !" Sanford hollers across the near-empty parking lot.

"Hahahaha...noooooothing, except for the fact that you just got fuckin' _TOLD! ! ! ! !_" Losira giggles her way back to her own car as Sanford gives her the bras d'honneur.

* * *

Some twenty minutes later, Losira's Avendator and Deimos' sleek white Nissan GT-R pull up to the driveway of an empty-looking plot of land occupied sparsely by a few guard towers, electrical fencing, a sizable plot of gardens and cultivated plants, and portable trailers. A baseball field, lit with floodlights and erupting occasionally with a roar of cheers, is hosting a baseball game. As the GT-R rolls through the parting electric gates, the Avendator stops next to the guardhouse, passing by a sign.

_Defense Fuel Supply Point; San Pedro.  
Authorized Personnel Only.  
Trespassers will be charged with Federal offenses._

"ID please," the uniformed guard, dressed in military fatigues, sternly says to the driver of the Avendator through the open window of his guardhouse. Losira points at her eyepatch on her right eye.

"Olly olly oxen free."

The guard immediately ducks under his desk and reappears with a black stick resembling a flashlight. He shines it onto Losira's eyepatch, and a faint outline of the yin-yang that is painted onto the leather is revealed.

"You're good to go, Ms. Losira. Have a good evenin'."

"Same to you."

The gate reopens for the Avendator, and she pulls through and follows after the now-distant GT-R.

"What was that?" Reimu asks, curious to know of their exchange.

"This is a military base, one of many posts that Seal Team 6 operates out of around the world. Because in case shit goes down and the lives of my comrades or mine are at stake, we've vowed to disassociate from one another; this means that I don't have a proper military ID, so in order to get in, I say a certain passphrase to the guard, and whoever's on duty'll shine that light on my eyepatch. That flashlight's a radiation detector, and my eyepatch has traces of alpha radiation," Losira explains quickly, driving onto the gravel and parking next to Deimos's Nissan. "If anyone tries tracing my connections, they won't have an ID to work off of."

"But radiation? Is that not dangerous?" Yukari points out.

"The amount that's on my eyepatch is hardly anything; normal humans can easily handle its close proximity, so don't you worry 'bout that." Losira throws her gear handle into parking and hits the brake, pulling her keys out. "Let's move."

The women exit the car, and Sanford and Deimos, the latter taking one last drag on his cigarette before flicking it perfectly into a nearby ashtray, wait for them next to one of the portable trailers.

"Welcome to the San Pedro Fuel and Supply Depot! I'd give y'all a proper tour of the place, but we're on the clock right now," Sanford cheerily states, leading the group into the trailer, whose interior is neatly furnished as an office.

"What's with all these gardens? Are you guys growing your own food here or what?" Reimu asks, looking around one last time before closing the door behind her.

"We oftentimes have high school kids and volunteer groups that're local who come down here every week 'r so to take care of endangered plants and animal species 'n shit. That's why you can see greenhouses in between some 'a the fuel towers, 'n them gardens jus' outside," Sanford replies, glancing here and there around the office. "Now, where was it..."

"Don't tell me you fuckin' forgot already, douchebag," Losira growls, annoyed.

"Dayuuuum, girl, chill out for fuckin' once in your life, I got this!" Sanford fakes exaggeration at Losira's attitude as he approaches a temperature gauge in the corner of the office. Opening it, he presses a combination of buttons, causing the gauge to beep quietly. "Alright, get on, it'll be goin' soon."

"Er...huh, what?" Reimu and Yukari are confused as Losira, Deimos, and Sanford huddle together on the carpet.

"Oh, that's right. Will the platform fit five people?" Losira asks.

"Only way to know is to find out," Deimos mutters. "You two, scrunch up next to us and hope you don't hit the edges."

Not knowing what they mean, Reimu and Yukari stand on either side of Losira as the temperature gauge behind starts beeping very loudly. After five beeps, the carpet beneath their feet shakes and sinks. The small square plot of carpet that they stand on elevators them down some thirty feet below, and the floor above shuts after them, perfectly disguised as just a simple stretch of ordinary office carpeting.

"Fascinating..." Yukari whispers as small fluorescent lights illuminate the small elevator floor underneath their feet. Reimu, however, is a little more defensive about the situation.

"So this is your base?"

"Basically, yeah. Like I said, though, we have lots more, not just this one," Losira responds coolly as the narrow elevator slows to a smooth and comfortable halt. The sounds of a short burst of steam blast for a split second, and the wall before the group parts in half and reveals the enigmatic facility below the military supply depot.

"What the...?" Reimu, finally captivated by the sight before her, is unable to finish her thought.

The elevator doors close behind them to immerse everyone into a borderless and spacious room in which it is impossible for a normal human to differentiate where the room begins and where the room ends. The room itself is pitch black, yet everyone present in the room are clearly and easily visible, as if light is present thirty feet below the surface above. Surrounding them from all sides, even underneath them, little white specks, some bigger than others, dot the landscape, but most notable are the big bodies that hang in relative close proximity to the occupants of the room.

The solar system.

As Deimos, Sanford, and Losira proceed further into the room, Yukari and Reimu cannot help but to stare in astonishment around them. They watch as they pass by Mars and its two oddly shaped moons, and Reimu reaches out to the planet, half wondering if the projections she is witnessing are actually tangible, and to her complete surprise, her finger bumps against Mars and causes it to bounce away from her.

"Cool, isn't it?" Reimu turns to see Losira gazing at her a little ways away. "I had the same reaction when they showed this to me as well. Seeing that I'm an astronomy freak, this's like a dream come true. C'mon, you can check 'em out later."

Losira leads Yukari and Reimu to the central command post in the center of the room as Jupiter sails lazily past them over their heads. As they approach the Sun, holographic outlines that they have seen from afar from the elevator entrance materialize fully into human bodies. Six of them, to be precise, some seated on floating asteroids, some standing, and at least one sitting on Haley's comet, riding it 'round and 'round the Sun.

"There they are! Cool, isn't it, this room? We put a lotta time into it, watcha think?" Sanford asks them eagerly.

"It's wonderful...how did you make this?" Reimu wonders, still partially gawking at a dark-skinned, tall and well-built man in his early twenties sitting on one such asteroid, who chuckles back at her.

"Took long time, I assure you. Not easy task, not at all." He speaks in a heavy Indian accent. Losira claps her hands to get everyone's attention.

"Okay, ladies 'n gents, icebreaker time, so y'all gotta shut up."

"Ooohhhh, ooohh, I love icebreakers! It's so fun makin' everyone feel so awkward!" the bubbly pale-blue haired girl whirling around on Haley's Comet cheers.

"Goddamn it, Kane, get off Haley for fuckin' once!"

"No, screw you! Haley's _mine!_" The girl riding Haley's Comet flips Losira off and continues to gleefully roam about the room on her trusty cosmic steed amidst everyone's laughter. Losira, shaking her head, disregards her as she continues talking.

"Alright, everyone, these're the girls I told y'all 'bout. Reimu Hakurei-" Reimu waves - "and Yukari Yakumo." Yukari gives a short nod. "They'll be workin' with me for a lil' bit, and I'll have 'em explain their part." Losira turns to the girls by her side. "Reimu 'n Yukari, from left to right-" Losira quickly rattles off names as her finger traverses the astronomical landscape - "Sanford, Deimos, Lauren, Big, 'n Chuck." The team wave their hellos at the newcomers. "And that stupid idiot up there is Kane."

"Shut up, you're just jealous Haley's mine and not yours, sucker!" Kane calls from high above. Lauren clears her throat and speaks in a delicate voice, as if her vocal chords are literally made of the world's finest silk.

"I feel we will be here for some time, so may I entertain you with some tea and cake?" Lauren asks their guests, and Reimu instantly nods, suddenly unable to resist her craving for tea upon hearing the word.

"Show a little more patience, Reimu," Yukari says disdainfully, but Reimu pays no heed.

"They offered it to us, what's your problem?" Reimu counters as Lauren reaches out at the stars behind her and plucks one such dot from the black cosmoscape and pinches it on two ends using the fingernails of both thumbs and index fingers, stretching it out and turning it into a command prompt panel, complete with a keyboard and holographic mic. Quickly typing a few command lines, Lauren taps it twice, and the panel constricts and disappears, reappearing in two copies before Reimu and Yukari.

"You may choose your selection of refreshments from those panels," Lauren explains with a light smile. "They should arrive immediately."

Yukari taps on grape tea and a slice of cream brulee, and Reimu selects cranberry tea and a slice of cherry cake. Upon confirmation, the panels disappear, and holographic outlines of their refreshments weave quickly into realization. Within seconds, two saucers, two teacups, two salad plates, and two slices of cake float as if in zero gravity in front of Yukari and Reimu.

"Wow...that's awesome..." Reimu cannot help but say this aloud as she takes her small cake fork and digs in. Lauren giggles, pleased that the system is working flawlessly.

"When we first established this outpost, we knew we had to make it some sort of permanent base since Losira lives pretty close by," the rather short and spectacled Chinese-American whose name Losira had indicated as Big elaborates with a hint of a Mandarin accent while leaning back, his body also appearing as though he is floating in zero gravity. "We decided to take our sweet time with this base, and the result turned out kinda like this."

"It's honestly overkill, though," Deimos mutters, clicking his tongue. "We could've used all the serenity that we dumped into pimpin' out this room for our research."

"It's not overkiiiiillll! ! ! ! ! ! You can't replace my Haleeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyy! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !" Kane's voice saunters down from above, and Chuck, the well-built Indian man, gives a hearty burst of laughter. Deimos simply shakes his head in disappoint while Losira applies her palm to her forehead.

"I'm actually considering asking you guys to get rid of this stupid base just because Kane's fucking obsessed with that comet," Losira complains.

"Why you heff to be mad, Losira?" Chuck chuckles as Kane again screams at Losira, threatening to ram her with Haley's Comet should Losira suggest such an outrageous order again. "See, she have fun. We spend lots of time on base. It okay for us to enjoy sometime. It simple, no need for anger."

"But like, how does this room even work? And Deimos mentioned you used serenity to build this base or something like that?" Reimu asks, her mouth partially filled with cherry cake.

"Allow me to explain; as Big has stated already, we constructed this base with Losira's residence in mind," Lauren says. "At the time, Beta Block trafficking was beginning to develop, and we capitalized on its development by having Losira acquire Beta Blocks from the start. Because there were not very many Beta Testers in the beginning, Losira was able to accrue quite a stockpile of Beta Blocks, which we used to research serenity. We realized that serenity possesses the power to enable technologies decades, possibly centuries ahead of our current generation, and using our knowledge, we converted quite a bit of serenity into a usable energy form that we could all manipulate and used it to build this room." Lauren gazes at Kane as the latter swoops here and there on the comet. "Of course, that does not mean we know all that there is know about serenity, but if we can accomplish something of this magnitude with what little we do know about serenity, the technological possibilities are limitless, just like the universe."

Lauren points at their food.

"For example, the food that you have ordered is food taken from our pantry above us in one of the storage facilities on the depot compound. This system, if commanded to do so, will use a bit of serenity to transform the food's essence from the pantry into serenity and replicate the original cake and tea's essence, which is what are you are eating now. This solar system, which is the theme of our little home here, is a reinterpretation of modified serenity energies that we have been able to refine and manipulate."

"Would it be accurate to say that this room is an illusion, then?" Yukari asks.

"Not necessarily, no," Big interjects. "Everything you see here is in fact real; there's no optical illusion or some other dumb trick we're trying to pull. It's the power of serenity that makes this possible. Including the fact that Haley's Comet is about to crash into the Sun." Sure enough, Kane accidentally rams directly into the Sun that is hanging in the blackness just behind Big and topples onto the invisible floor while Losira laughs gleefully. "Just goes on to show you what serenity can really do, even if this solar system gig's just a model in the end. You think we should donate the code to an astronomy museum or something? Maybe an exhibit down in LA?"

"Awwww, heeeeell no, Big, we ain't a charity organization or nothin'! We gotta make some fuckin' cash money off our work!" Sanford exclaims, and Big simply sneers at him condescendingly.

"I don't want to hear that from the only person who didn't do jack shit for the code, so if we ever do take your advice and sell the code, I'm making sure you don't see a single penny of what we get, fuckin' _gwailo_."

"What the fuck, I thought you're Mandarin, not Cantonese, dipshit!"

"Does it fucking matter? You're white, I'm chink, deal with it, cracker. That sound better? Or does backwater hillbilly redneck fit the bill better?" Big snickers as Sanford's left eye twitches like mad. Lauren softly chuckles.

"Please excuse their banter; they usually don't get along."

"Since when have they ever?" Losira says.

"In work, they get along fine. No hostility. Work matter lots," Chuck explains.

"Well, no shit, I'm not gonna let that asshole fuck up any of our ops," Sanford retorts.

Big sits up, scratching his spiked hair and tapping his right earlobe that is pierced by small studded earring. "Whatever, bro, and sorry to crash the party, but could we get to business? I don't think I recall this turning into some tea party, no offense to either of you." Big nods at Reimu and Yukari.

"Okay, for reals this time, don't fuck around on Haley," Losira calls to Kane as she gets up and rolls over next to Big. "Who wants to go ahead 'n be professor for the day?"

The members of Seal Team 6, the logo on the back of Sanford's shirt also printed on the Sun, glance at each other.

"Well, fer starters, let's have the guys who're actually workin' with the shit talk, y'know?" Sanford points out. "Someone, volunteer before Losira shoots somebody."

Losira slaps Sanford's right shoulder with the back of her M1911. "You really think I'd do that?"

"If you hit me with your fuckin' gun, you'd shoot me, too!"

"Fine, you're the one exception."

Kane screeches wildly as Sanford rolls his eyes.

"Movin' on, someone? Deimos 'n I're only in charge 'a collectin' the shit, y'know."

"Don't group me with you, dumbass, I work on the coding and the lab work, too," Deimos snaps.

Lauren clears her throat. "W-Well, perhaps we should ask our guests their situation? Losira did tip us off about their predicament, so we should do what we can to help given the circumstances."

"I'll explain, since it'll save time; they can fill in the details where you ask," Losira says, stowing away her pistol. "Basically, they're from Gensokyou, that other world Earth's connected to that I told y'all 'bout. Apparently, Gensokyou's protected by a barrier called the Hakurei Dai-Kekkai that Yukari helped build with Reimu's ancestors; the Dai Kekkai protects Gensokyou from Earth's influences, though from what they've told me, some stuff slips through randomly here 'n there. But point is, their Dai Kekkai's disintegrating, and they think our usage of serenity here on Earth's got somethin' to do with it."

A brief silence as the team digests Losira's account.

"Please explain this barrier's manner of disintegration," Lauren requests, her face stone-cold serious.

"There are holes that are thinning in certain areas of the barrier," Yukari says.

"Any noticeable patterns or anything we must know about?"

"None; the areas of effect are purely by random, and at the current rate, the Dai Kekkai will shatter completely by collapsing on its own weight within half a year."

"That is rather urgent, then. What should happen to both Gensokyou and Earth if the Dai Kekkai is to fall?"

"Gensokyou ceases to exist, basically," Reimu juts in. "I'm a shrine maiden at the shrine that's in charge of the border, so in other words I'm directly involved with the barrier as well. I know for a fact that if the Dai Kekkai's gone, Earth will overwhelm Gensokyou's residents with science and other stuff like that."

"But how exactly will that happen?" Big asks, pushing his glasses up.

"I'd imagine Gensokyou will basically break apart immediately since it's been dependent on the Dai Kekkai for over the last century by now," Reimu remarks. "All of the residents there will be thrown straight into Earth, and all hell'll break loose since youkai that live there usually eat humans, more often than not. But while I say that, humans here have more than enough power to wage entire genocides against the Gensokyou populations. Not even our magic can compete, possibly just because of the fact that there's virtually no magic in the atmosphere here to support magic in the first place."

"But from what Losira say, you can still use magic, yes?" Chuck asks slowly.

"Yeah, but not to the point where that's all we need to rely on."

"Oh okay, I understand."

"Tell me, when have you first spotted signs of the Hakurei Dai Kekkai's breakdown?" Lauren asks Yukari again.

"Several weeks ago."

"There's a definite possibility that serenity's fucking up that barrier of theirs," Deimos quietly asserts, grabbing attention. "Personally, I don't find it surprising if it turns out serenity's got some sort of adverse effect that's gone undetected until now since it's been building up for the past few years that Earth's been harvesting and using serenity."

"Then I believe it is appropriate now to inform you what we currently know about serenity, so please listen carefully." Lauren clears her throat once more. "Serenity is not just an energy source - it is also a substantial magic source that somehow manages to retain its magical composition on Earth, in an environment that does not allow for the existence of magic."

"Losira has already informed us of this," Yukari nods. "She had healed a gunshot wound in my right hand using energy from the Beta Block she had captured on the night of our meeting, and no matter how strong an energy source is, it cannot have healing properties if it does not have some sort of magical component."

"Oh, I am sorry to interrupt, but Losira, before we forget, do you have the Beta Block with you?" Lauren turns to Losira, who reaches into her black business coat and pulls out the dully shining jewel, tossing it underhanded to Lauren. "Thank you kindly, your payment shall be pending shortly."

"Thanks, ya."

Lauren, after analyzing the jewel, lets go of it gingerly, and it levitates on its own again and lazily floats about around the sun as if caught in its orbit.

"So yes, we have determined that serenity is in fact magical energy."

Reimu leans forward. "But how do _you_ guys know that for sure? We use magic on the daily back home in Gensokyou, yet we weren't even able to ascertain that, even if our powers're downgraded a lot. Can you people use magic too? Is that how you know?"

"Uh, yeah, 'course. You couldn't tell? I mean, you've been hanging out with Losira for the past day, right?" Big says, a little confused. "Doesn't her eye tell you anything?"

"Big, you know Losira not show eye, right?" Chuck mutters disappointedly.

"Oh shit, right...forgot. But yeah, we've all got some trait that can pass off as magic or whatever occult shit you believe in."

"So you all have powers, right?"

"Yeah, but it's not like we'll show yaaaa~" Kane drawls while leaning against the sun like a cat curled up in front of a lit and cozy fireplace. "Maybe if you watch us fight you'll find out, and hopefully you won't be fighting uuuussss~"

"Hush, Kane," Lauren says. "Now, has Losira explained how the Beta Blocks do come to be?"

"She has told us that they drop in random areas every so often, but nothing beyond this," Yukari says.

"Beta Blocks are byproducts of Alpha Blocks. When the government facilities that are built on the Alpha Block sites mine serenity, the residual energy that is released from the harvesting bleeds into the atmosphere and travels the world on high-altitude wind currents and space currents. During that time, the energy acts like rain in that once enough of the energy is gathered, it becomes too heavy to keep its high altitudes and drops down to the surface at random times and locations."

As Lauren speaks, several stars drop down from above and morph into panels displaying photos of the serenity harvesting facilities and diagrams of Beta Block behavior.

"They disappear naturally within 24 hours of their arrival, but only if no human comes into contact with them. This suggests that the Blocks somehow depend their existences on human proximity, perhaps human energy or essence. Normal human beings can see and interact with the Beta Blocks, but they cannot sense their presence from afar. Those with magical backgrounds or magic energy signatures will, however. There have been no documented reports of negative health consequences of humans being exposed to serenity for extended periods of time, not even on Alpha Testers who have been handling serenity on a regular basis for the past few years."

More panels pop up, with more diagrams and charts.

"However, this is pure serenity we have been talking about. We are aware of two methods that can be used to process pure serenity: Progression and Regression. Progression Processing is what is used to convert serenity into fuel sources as alternatives for gasoline, natural gas, coal, et cetera - Processed serenity virtually has replaced every single fuel source that the world had known and used before serenity was discovered. The second method, Regression Refinement, is an alternative method that no one is supposed to know about. Only four federally funded groups are aware of this refinement method, and one of those groups is us, Seal Team 6."

"Regression Refinement?" Yukari leans forward, deeply interested too.

"Regression Refinement is what is sounds like," Big speaks, taking off his glasses and breathing on them to wipe them with the bottom of his shirt. "While Progression Processing turns serenity into a usable form of fuel, we reverse serenity's magic energy signature into its previous form."

"Serenity has a previous form?" Reimu asks.

"You know how serenity can't be sensed by normal humans? The reason for that's because serenity is diluted magic energy. Processing serenity causes the magic in it to fade away, allowing it to be pure fuel energy and no magic. Refining it, though, does the opposite: it strengthens the magic that serenity contains, eventually turning it into pure magic."

"Pure magic..." Yukari frowns at the implications.

"And the only way to refine serenity is to have people like us, people with magic energy signatures and can manipulate magic essence in some way. If you've got some sort of supernatural power, you're qualified to refine it. You two can do it too, if we tell you how."

"Refined serenity is much, much more volatile than unprocessed or processed serenity. Our tests have shown that animals, including rats, mice, and hamsters, gain human-like cognitive skills and elongated lifespans; however, upon sustained exposure to refined serenity, all animal subjects' brains automatically shut down, the longest lasting no more than three days. It seems that refined serenity is strictly meant for humans."

"Wait, meant for humans? What do you mean by that?" Reimu asks.

"Here's the context for it: we're the ones who figured out the refinement method," Deimos says in his usual quiet voice, chewing on some watermelon Dubble Bubble. "Naturally, since we're milfags, other secret service intelligence agencies and groups around the globe wanted in on our dirty lil' secret. Then came our experiment with one of the dudes from the SAS - since our government trusts Britain pretty closely, both governments green-lighted our collaboration, but we said that if they wanted to work with refined serenity, they'd have to volunteer a human guinea pig for our testing. A bloke named Gaz volunteered, and we had him carry around a necklace of refined serenity in an emerald for two weeks."

"The results?" Yukari asks.

"After a week, Gaz started to gain enhanced senses; he originally wore glasses and had pretty bad eyesight, but after that first week he didn't need it anymore. The serenity amplified his senses almost three times the normal human's. Just before the second week was up, he reported that he was in possession of a particular power, a power that lets him directly interfere with people's nervous systems if he touches them. Eventually, he developed his power to the point where he can fuck up someone's central nervous system and mix up their brains' censors at a range of 25 meters out."

"To note, Gaz was previously a medical student before he joined the Special Air Service," Lauren points out. "After the first experiment on Gaz, which was an immediate success, more volunteers filed their consent, and we tested refined serenity on them as well. So far, all subjects have been deemed successful. They have all developed some sort of superhuman ability and are able to sense serenity, both unprocessed and refined. Soon, other international organizations requested that we share our experiment and research as to prevent a purely American and English monopoly on us 'superhumans', even though they do not realize that there have always been such 'superhumans' even before the existence of serenity-induced subjects."

"Serenity can turn normal humans into magic users...? Magic essence cannot bestow power upon those who have not previously used magic in their lifetimes; it is only possible through inheritance! Just how strong is this serenity exactly?" Yukari wonders, concerned.

"Strong enough to give powers, apparently," Big says. "We don't know if people can 'overdose' on refined serenity, though, for lack of a better term, but seeing how those rats died from OD'ing, I don't think I even wanna know."

"That's jus' 'bout all we know on serenity, though," Sanford says. "We're still in the middle of researchin' the shit, so we'll update everyone on whatever else we find. Now, we need to focus on our problems -"

"Wait, hold on! You guys seriously don't know anything else? Anything that might be screwing with our boundary?" Reimu asks, half in irritated annoyance, half in desperation, but the members of ST6 shake their heads.

"Unfortunately, we have not found anything about it that may suggest some sort of connection to your predicament, Reimu," Lauren apologizes. "Not so far, anyway. If we do come across something, we will be more than happy to let you know."

"Because we can't fix it on our end in Gensokyou, that's why we came here, to find answers and fix it from here!"

"Now hold up, Reimu, they can't tell you much just from what they know 'bout serenity alone," Sanford says.

"Yes, listen to Sanford. He tell you thing that help." Chuck urges, and Reimu, having stood up in emphasis, reluctantly sits back down.

"Alright, so lemme explain how the show runs. Losira's told you about this already, but people've caught onto the fact that serenity can get 'em big bucks if they sell 'em to private agencies and research groups like us who wanna know more about it. It's no secret to those guys now that refined serenity exists 'n gives people powers. Now this Beta Tester shit's some sorta black market underground business, kinda like a casino, 'cept when you lose, you die. Sometimes. One of those agencies is the AAHW."

"AAHW? One of the men who attacked us last evening mentioned the name when Losira interrogated him briefly," Yukari notes.

"Advanced Adminstration of the Holy War," Sanford rolls his eyes while saying this. "Their name's really dumb, but they're basically an organization that knows us and does what it can to fuck us up. They're in this Beta Block traffickin', too, naturally."

"In other words, they want us dead," Losira says.

"They want _everyone_ dead, except for them, obviously," Kane retorts.

"Why do they want to kill you guys? And what've they got to do with us?" Reimu asks.

"We were the first ones to refine serenity, so I guess they want our secrets and waste us at the same time," Losira snorts. "The reason why they might interest you is because their leader, some idiot who calls himself the Auditor says that he wants to use serenity to, and I quote, 'destroy one world and set the other on fire'."

At this, both Yukari's and Reimu's eyes widen.

"And yes, he's most likely referring to Gensokyou," Losira mentions, noticing their reaction. "He's mentioned it directly too."

"He's a fat fuck, is who he is," Sanford complains. "Like, seriously, what the fuck's your problem calling us and asking us a bunch of fuckin' philosophical questions that we don't give two flying fucks about?"

"He is our most dangerous opposition, Sanford, remember that, please," Lauren sternly warns. "If he is somehow able to contact us directly into our own private channels, I cannot imagine what else he can do."

"Then all we need to do is to find this Auditor guy and beat him up? That's simple, then!" Reimu sighs, relieved.

Lauren puts her stern gaze onto Reimu this time. "Reimu, I do not think you are truly aware of Auditor's power. He is one of us, as well, one capable of fearsome magical power, a power even we have no clue about. If I may demonstrate, this is a video clip that we had recovered when one of our facilities was attacked by him and his association a year ago."

A panel appears above the sun and angles itself down onto the people below. The video loads with a bit of static, and a video feed shows six men in heavy military armor and equipment marching down a corridor, on patrol. Suddenly, entire screen statics and blacks out completely for a split second before normalizing and showing an empty black brick corridor. The screen blacks out temporarily again, and when the light does come back on, six severed heads, the top portions of their spines dangling out of the necks, are drilled into the walls, impaled by their own spinal chords. A small, cheerful humming echoes down the corridor as a horribly mangled figure, unable to scream as desperately as she wants to, crawls slowly towards the dim lighting and reaches out with a handless right arm, trying to reach for help that would never come. The humming catches up to the woman, she simply stares at the man doing the humming, who stops near her. Something drops at his feet, and Yukari and Reimu have to squint to see what it is.

Her throat is lying at the man's bloody formal dress shoes.

The woman, also realizing this, squeezes her eyes and begins to smash the back of her head against the brick wall as hard as she can, repeatedly, over and over as the man watches the woman paint the wall with the color of her own brain. A very robotic crawl scrapes through.

"_I wonder when I can do this to all of you?_'

The video cuts, and Lauren claps her hands to dissipate the screen.

"That man, Auditor, has already assaulted many of our military outposts that have been in our direct contact. He is looking for anything that is related to serenity: Beta Blocks, papers on our research, files, whatever he can find. He is clearly very interested in serenity as well, but unlike anyone else, he is not actually going after the Blocks; he is solely targeting us. Beware; Auditor is extremely dangerous, to extents we must see for ourselves to know fully."

Deimos pops the bubble that he is blowing. "And the best part is, we don't even know why he's doing this. Just because we were the first ones to get refined serenity doesn't mean jack shit - he knows things that we don't, and there's something else that we have that he wants." Deimos gazes over at the two residents of Gensokyou. "If you can try asking him a few things, don't end up like those guys you just saw. Oh, and if you see AAHW personnel, do us a favor 'n kill 'em all."

* * *

The Avendator is silent as it pulls out of the military supply depot's front gate. Losira breaks the silence.

"You'll be staying at my place, then, and going back tomorrow?"

Yukari, who sits shotgun this time, nods slowly. Reimu also speaks up.

"...Losira, how long have you known that...that Auditor guy for?"

"He was the one who got me into this whole fucking Beta Block business."

"...he did?"

"For the record, I'll be fucking ripping his head off when I see him."

They drive for a few minutes in silence again before Losira fiddles with the stereo.

"I hope you don't mind some music; seeing that you're from Gensokyou, you probably won't like it, but deal with it anyway. I play music in the car whenever I feel like it, so..."

The speakers inside the Lamborghini pump with sound as the lyrics roll in.

"_I'ma be that nail in your coffin, sayin' that I softened, I was duckin' down to reload_-"

The headlights roar up the mountain towards Losira's home.


	5. AK-103

"Are you sure about this, Losira?"

Dawn brings into view three ladies standing in the empty lot where they had first met. Losira's Lamborghini Avendator is parked nearby.

"Yeah, take 'em. I mean, if you're gonna go back home for a little bit, you may as well practice up on your shot while you're there. Gensokyou doesn't have anything like gun laws, right?"

Yukari and Reimu both hold blue bulletproof cases containing one H&K USP .45 handgun each, complete with three spare magazines and their respective cleaning kits, given to them by Losira.

"In any case, one last thing I need to tell you before y'all go. Lauren let me know earlier this morning that there might be a Beta Block dropping down again nearby," Losira mentions.

"I see. Do you know exactly where?" Yukari asks, and Losira looks around her and points to the general direction.

"I'd say it's gonna land 'bout four miles that way," Losira says. "It'll drop in around a day, so if you're interested, make sure you come back."

Reimu and Yukari nod.

"Say, just outta curiosity, you don't happen to have, like, something that can let us talk to each other cross-world, do you?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Reimu asks.

"I mean like something that'll let us talk even if I'm here on Earth and you two are in Gensokyou. Like a walkie-talkie."

"Well, if that's what you mean, technically only Yukari can do something like that with her gap powers. Right now I don't think I can make shikigami strong enough to have the same capability."

"Then in that case, I'll come back here in exactly 24 hours," Losira concludes. "Make sure not to be late, because tomorrow, that Beta Block we'll be getting, we're gonna use it."

"Use it? How so?" Yukari asks.

"More specifically, you two will use it."

"Eh? But why would we have a reason to use it?" Reimu asks, also confused.

"Because what my friends over at Seal Team 6 didn't tell you is that even you guys, who've already got magic powers, can siphon energy and powers from the Beta Blocks as well. You remember how they told you that anyone with a magic energy signature can refine serenity, right? That's what you'll be doing, and I'll show you two exactly how."

"It almost sounds like those guys didn't want to tell us that," Reimu remarks.

"It's understandable. They're not gonna trust people that they've just barely known for a little less than half a day, so they're not gonna disparage information that easily."

"What about you, then, Losira? Do you trust us?"

Losira tugs on her dark blue fingerless gloves with the ends of her thick fingernails.

"I don't trust anyone. In the world that I live in, trusting is basically the same thing as trying to shoot an M4A1 after it's been dunked in swamp water; tl;dr, it's gonna backfire eventually. Not even you two. But you can be assured that I still trust you more than my associates do."

Losira glances back at them, taking out the lollipop in her mouth.

"I'll leave you with one last thing for you to think about, you don't have to listen to it. I don't know how it is over in Gensokyou, but at least while you're here, it's best if y'all adapt the same kinda attitude. Because magic exists here on Earth in such random and unique ways, it's hard to identify or categorize powers for analysis, which, in turn, naturally begs for too many seeds of mistrust."

Losira starts twirling her car keys.

"It'd be nice 'n easy if we could indeed just trust each other and call it a wrap there. But I've worked with too many double-crossers and had to be one myself at times to save my own life 'n more. Just a fair warning to you whenever you're here."

Yukari narrows her eyes.

"So you mean to suggest that in the event in which you are faced with a predicament that may bring about the end of your world as you know it, you will abandon trust entirely and sow strife and distrust among your own people?"

"Yukari, I've already told you. You're on Earth right now, not Gensokyou. I don't know how you guys do it over there. But as far as I know, if society was gonna fall apart tomorrow, I know for a fucking goddamn fact that a good chunk of people who are living right now on this godforsaken planet will start killing everyone else they see. Are you telling me to trust those kinds of people?"

"But you fail to see that not everyone will indiscriminately mistrust one another at the hands of a catastrophe."

"And you're right, not everyone will. But that only applies to those who aren't involved in any underground backwater shit - like me, like you. Didn't Reimu say you're really old or something? You should know this, Yukari. We live in way different worlds, not only from each other but from other people like the people around us."

Losira glances around to prove her point, noting all the pedestrians and passersby.

"I so happen to live in a world where trust is taboo, where trust is forbidden, where trust simply doesn't fucking exist...well, not in actuality, anyway. And because you're going to be living with me in our world in order to fix yours, I highly recommend that you do as I say. You don't have to; I'm not requiring you to by any means. But if you wanna get the info you need to fix that Dai Kekkai of yours and wash your hands of this crap clean and get out, you should listen to me, eh?"

"So in other words, you are telling us to trust you."

"Not even. If that's what I meant, I'm a slut-mouthed hypocrite, and that's not who I am, so don't try to use my own words against me. Again, you don't have to listen to me. But because you need help, I'm here to give as much of it as I can without getting my head blown off in the process. Got it?"

Reimu clears her throat. "Well then, _Losira-sama_, is there anything else you need to tell us before we depart from your excellency's presence?"

"Not really, _Hime-sama_. I would ask that you drop that kinna attitude when you're around me since I positively fucking hate when people talk to me like bitches, but instead I'll ask you to try to recruit some more help if you can."

"Help? What kind of help?"

"As in extra hands, people. Again, if you don't want to put your friends in danger, by all means, don't bring 'em here. But having more manpower is always better than having less, and it'll be better if they were people you knew personally so you can have that whole trust thing going among all of y'all. Plus, I'm assuming your friends have powers that they can use here on Earth as well. Well, sort of, I guess."

Reimu and Yukari glance at each other.

"Well, we could ask some people for help, I suppose," Reimu wonders.

"We shall contemplate it on our own time, Reimu," Yukari says. "For now, this is farewell. We shall return in a day's time, Losira."

Yukari promptly turns and raises her left hand. A human-sized gap rips open, and Yukari steps through without another word. Reimu sticks one leg through but stops, turning back to look at Losira one final time for the day.

"Oh, I almost forgot to ask, Losira, but...I don't think we've ever gotten your surname from you. Do you have one, or...?"

Losira scratches her forehead, her dark brown hair waving slightly with the morning zephyr.

"I used to have one. No, two, actually, but I just ditched both. It's not like I care enough for my own name to try to propagate it later in life, anyhow, since I'll probably be dead before then."

"You ditched your own name? W...What's that even supposed to mean?"

"Isn't it obvious? I detested my own name, so I got rid of it."

"..." Reimu begins to glare at Losira.

"What? You got a problem with me doing what I want with my name?"

"...I don't mean to judge you or anything, Losira, but names are among those things that you don't throw away just because you don't like them."

"Really? Tell me more about it, then, because you just told me that you know nothing about what it means to hate." Losira readjusts her mouthhold on her candy. "I guess it's because you never really had a reason to truly hate anything in your life, right?"

Reimu withdraws her leg out of the gap to turn to Losira. "I don't quite care enough about much of anything to get to the point where I actually hate something, so yeah, you're right, Losira." Reimu harshly spits her comrade's name. "And quite frankly, I don't wanna get to that point 'cause it's too much of a hassle. But maybe if you keep this up, just maybe you'll finally make me feel this hate you speak of."

"Better me than anyone else, and better now than later," Losira smirks. "I can tell, Reimu. You're a really powerful girl when you're on your home turf. I'd actually gander to bet that you're one of the strongest entities over in Gensokyou. If that's the case, then it'd certainly make sense out of that attitude just now. But here, you're only a shadow of your true power. It's common knowledge that wielding your emotions alongside your energy will drastically alter your power; it's true even here on Earth. If you know what resentment is, if you know what distrust is, if you know what hate is, then you'll be able to fight better and more efficiently. That's how I fight, and it's worked so far."

"Don't tell me how I should fight," Reimu growls. "I appreciate your efforts in training us, in showing us how to use guns and whatnot. But just because of that, you shouldn't feel entitled to tell us what the correct way of fighting is, even if we're working within _your_ system."

"For fuck's sake, why do both of you always twist my words out of context? I've only ever mentioned that I recommend that you listen to me; I don't ever recall saying that you _have_ to do as I say."

"While I can't deny that, your connotation's basically the same."

Losira and Reimu stare at each other, like ice and fire battling each other to see which entity dies down first.

"...we'll argue later, get going and rest. We can bicker like this all we want, but in the end, I'm here to help out because you asked me to. You can see me as the biggest asshole bitch you've ever met, I really don't give two fucks. Like Yukari said, I'd wouldn't like it either if I had to save the world, too," Losira says, dispelling their little standoff. Reimu slowly turns, as if reluctantly, and steps through the gap again.

"See you later in a day, then, Losira."

"Yeah, later."

The gap zips shut after Reimu as Losira waves her off. The eyepatch girl arcs her neck, stretching her arms out to rid her body of the early morning aches.

"...time to go visit Onii-chan."

The engine of her sports car roars to life and screams away.

* * *

Two hours later, in Gensokyou, at the Hakurei Shrine...

"I suppose we will be receiving an explanation for all this recent ruckus, then?" Toyosatomimi no Miko, the head of the Great Mausoleum, says in a serious tone, being one of the many leaders of Gensokyou current seated around the large kotatsu in Reimu's living room of the shrine.

"First of all, Miko, take off your cape while you're inside!" Reimu scolds as she and her best friend, Kirisame Marisa, a witch living in a local forest, enter the room with two large platters of a wide variety of snacks and bakeries. "You always complain about how I never bother taking off my shoes when I come visit, and you expect to get away with that?"

Miko fakes a pout as her companion, Soga no Tojiko, helps her remove the cape. "Certainly that's true, but I never used such a tone against my guest! Tojiko, Reimu is bullying me..."

"I can see that, Taishi-sama," Tojiko replies in an almost deadpan manner, folding up Miko's big purple cape into a neat bundle and handing it to the nearby Mononobe no Futo, their third companion and follower, who is glaring across the kotatsu at their opponents of the Myouren Buddhist Temple.

"But why come to terms with our enemies, Taishi-sama?" Futo complains in archaic Japanese. "It is clear that no reason can be discerned from engaging in cooperation with those of the Myouren faction."

One of the representatives of the Myouren Temple, Toramaru Shou, interjects firmly. "The same sentiment is true for us as well, but at the very least we have the decency to grasp the urgency of the situation at hand to lay aside our own personal feud in the interest of Gensokyou-"

"And I'd love for you all to at least be _relatively_ quiet until Yukari gets here!" Reimu exclaims very irritably, handing the last cup of tea to Saigyouji Yuyuko, the Ghostly Princess of the Netherworld, who takes it eagerly. "When I say come in, sit down, and shut up, I _mean_ it, especially when I know I'd have to invite two groups of people I'd rather not have under the same roof, especially _my_ roof! If I have to beat you all again, I will!"

Sighing heavily, Reimu stands again as Marisa takes a seat and a cup of tea next to her friend and fellow youkai witch, Alice Margatroid. The shrine maiden scans the room to check that everyone is present at their meeting: her best friend and troublemaker, Kirisame Marisa, along with their puppeteer friend Alice; Remilia Scarlet, the Eternally Young Moon from the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and her chief maid and bodyguard Izayoi Sakuya; Yuyuko and her own servant and gardener, Konpaku Youmu; the Immortal Sinners Houraisan Kaguya, Yagokoro Eirin, and Fujiwara no Mokou in addition to Eirin's assistant Reisen Udongein Inaba and Mokou's friend and local village teacher Kamishirasawa Keine; the Flower Master, Kazami Yuuka; the proprietors of the Moriya Shrine and its priestess, Yasaka Kanako, Moriya Suwako, and Kochiya Sanae; the residents and overseers of Hell, Komeiji Satori and Komeiji Koishi with their pets Reiuji Utsuho and Kaenbyou Rin; the Myouren Temple representatives Toramaru Shou and Byakuren Hijiri; the keepers of the Great Mausoleum, Toyosatomimi no Miko, Soga no Tojiko, Mononobe no Futo, Kaku Seiga, and Yoshika Miyako; and, to Reimu's surprise, the princess of the Shining Needle Castle, Shinmyoumaru Sukuna and her companions Seija Kijin, Tsukumo Benben, Tsukumo Yatsuhashi, and Horikawa Raiko.

"Now that I think about it, I really shouldn't've invited so many people..." She facepalms at her own lapse in judgment and sits down next to Marisa.

"But what couldja've done? Ever'one here's real important, not like you kin count out any one person, y'know," Marisa replies to her friend, sipping from her tea.

"Yeah, I _know_, but still, this's basically gonna cut into next month's budget for snacks..."

"Oi, oi, you've got guests over for serious business 'n financial shit's what's botherin' ya right now? Sheesh, I jus' can't believe ya sometimes." The blonde witch shakes her head disappointedly and chugs her tea.

"I can't believe _you_, either, just chugging your tea like that. That's my tea, can't you drink it with a little bit more respect?"

"Whoa whoa, don't go fuckin' drama queen of Gensokyou on me here, I'm jus' drinkin' tea how I want, da hell's there a problem widdat?"

Before Reimu can raise another word to continue their pointless but entertaining bickering, a rip opens up near the ceiling, one of Yukari's gaps. The head of Yukari's kyuubi shikigami servant, Yakumo Ran, pokes out from it.

"Please excuse us for our tardiness, but Yukari-sama shall be with us shortly."

"Ran, how long is 'shortly' exactly, 'cause last time she said that, she got us waiting for an hour and it turned out she was in the bathroom napping on the toilet," Reimu asks.

The room erupts with giggles and laughter as Ran's head dips with embarrassment at her master's slip-up. "Er...to be frank, I must confess I have no idea either..."

Yukari's voice trails out of the gap, barely audible over the dying wave of chuckles. "I _said_ I would be there in two minutes, I was busy compiling data from the Dai Kekkai! Reimu, I even mentioned this to you so you could inform the others!"

"I didn't on purpose, though."

"And why not?!"

"To make you get here faster." Another fresh wave of giggles finally invokes Yukari's head to also join Ran's in the ceiling gap.

"Oh...it seems there is no room. Ran, duck down, I will reset this gap..."

Ran and Yukari slip back inside the gap, which zips shut and reappears again at Reimu's head level, and Yukari, Ran, and Ran's nekomata shikigami, Yakumo Chen, pop out once more. "I assume everyone is present, yes?" Yukari looks around to confirm.

"Yes, yes, everyone's here, I already double-checked, even the hammer girl," Reimu rolls her eyes. "Can we start this already?"

"But of course. Everyone, please listen carefully, for I ask your full attention. This is about the Dai Kekkai's breakdown situation, and what Reimu and I have done so far about this incident..."

* * *

After some forty minutes of recounting on both Yukari's and Reimu's ends, the room is silent for a bit.

"The outside world must be even more modern than today's Gensokyou is, even," Miko remarks. "How surprising. Tojiko, perhaps I should venture out there once again?"

"It sounds dangerous out there, from what I've heard," Tojiko replies darkly. "We have only just been revived recently, and I refuse to undertake any sort of endeavor that will put any of our lives at risk."

The little dwarf princess, Sukuna, toddles across the kotatsutop. "I-I'll use my mallet to fix the Dai Kekkai!" She exclaims in a high-pitched tone, and another wave of giggles sets down upon them.

"I'm afraid that mallet won't really do much for the Dai Kekkai, Sukuna-sama," Tsukumo Benben, the lilac-haired biwa player, says gently.

"Yeah! Hime-sama, waddya think yer doin', sayin' somethin' ridiculously stupid like dat? Ha!" Seija Kijin laughs and points in Sukuna's face, causing her to sniffle and begin tearing up.

"Yo, Kijin..." The end of a gohei stick is nearly shoved right into Seija's face across the kotatsu table, with Reimu on the other end growling. "Just letting you know, my gohei still has some of Sukuna's power, so don't talk shit like that to her while you're here, mkay?" Seija shuts up immediately.

"Then to repeat, we cannot fix the Hakurei Dai Kekkai from within Gensokyou, correct?" the Lunatic Princess, Kaguya, asks, and Yukari nods at her. "Then what other choice do we have, other than venturing out to the outside world? This is not some simple incident that has come up before to disturb us; this concerns the existence of Gensokyou, our home, in its entirety."

"Yukari, you have verified this fully and completely, yes?" Byakuren Hijiri, the head monk of the Myouren Buddhist Temple, asks in a concerned tone.

"We would have no reason to lie, Hijiri, if our own homes are at stake."

"But how are we sure that the blame for the degradation of the Hakurei Dai Kekkai falls upon the shoulders of this serenity energy source alone?" Alice asks. "Have you confirmed this with certainty?"

"Well, it's more that we don't really know of anything else that's as suspicious as serenity," Reimu tells Alice. "We tried looking for anything else, but the only major change in events that's been going on recently in the outside world from our research there was the introduction of serenity as their primary source of energy and fuel for their society. Nothing else is out of whack besides that."

"But we can't necessarily assume that, can we? Just because we have our suspicions about this serenity stuff, granted it is really suspicious given its nature that you've told us, doesn't mean we can immediately jump to conclusions and say that the serenity is the cause of our problem."

"But it's the only thing we have to work off of, Alice! I already said we didn't find anything else, otherwise we'd've mentioned the possibility of another outside variable screwing with the barrier as well! We may as well act on what we know and not tinker around with some vague possibilities of other factors that we're not even aware of!"

"Then what if we delve further into this situation and find out there are indeed more variables besides this serenity essence that we must take into consideration?"

"Then we'll deal with them once they show themselves."

"That's not a good way to approach this, though. You're basically telling us that we need to go into the other side, and without knowing exactly what we're fighting against, we're basically dunking ourselves into an entirely different world we have no idea about."

"For you guys, of course not, but Yukari and I have already dove into their world, even if we've only brushed the surface," Reimu points out. "We've trailblazed the way for the rest of you should it turn out that all of you really do need to pitch in on this incident. On top of which, our accomplice, Losira, has requested that we bring extra people to help us."

"Then I suppose the real question before us in our quest to resolve this new incident is how much we choose to involve ourselves in this situation," the Lunarian Doctor, Yagokoro Eirin, speaks.

"Explain," Kaguya orders Eirin.

"Given the understandable nature of the very limited information that we possess courtesy of Yakumo and Hakurei, as far as I am concerned, I do believe that those with power in Gensokyou, at least for a time, must set aside their differences and work together by venturing to the outside world to garner enough information about serenity or whatever variable that is responsible for the deterioration of the Dai Kekkai until we have enough or necessary information that is needed to resolve this incident. With this initial assumption off of which we shall base our course of actions, we must first recognize that there are many risks associated with going to the outside world, called Earth. Some risks are quite clear and transparent: we have only the information and knowledge that those two possess, we are venturing into a relatively unknown world and society whose values and ways of life are drastically different to ours, we will not know, save for this Losira and her group called Seal Team 6, who to trust and collaborate with in our pursuit of success, we will not initially know our enemies, among other risks. But the most dangerous risk that I must point out to everyone present here is that of our ignorance of the possible extent of damage that will be done."

The small vampire's wings sway slightly as she speaks up. "Is that not a given? Is that not what the very definition of 'risk' entails, Yagokoro, that we may be hurt along the way? So what are you trying to say here?"

"That is not all that I mean, vampire. To elaborate, by engaging in this collaborated effort to resolve this incident, we must take into consideration multiple fields in which damage will be sustained. The physical injuries that those of us who volunteer to travel beyond the Dai Kekkai to enter the outside world called Earth; the damages that will result from our interactions with Earth; the damages that Gensokyou will sustain, both in terms of the Dai Kekkai and in other areas that we are not currently aware of. And what concerns me most of all, the possibility of gaining knowledge that the solution that we seek to resolve this incident may require an extent of damage that none of us may imagine."

The room falls quiet again, due largely to the fact that Eirin's long and complicated argument has blown completely over their heads, but the short pink-haired Yuyuko speaks out.

"Eirin, dear, calculating risks in order to weigh our most sensible options is indeed a safe way to approach our situation, but right now, given the urgency and lack of knowledge, theorizing costs and possible damages that we have not even a single hair's breadth of information on is rather out of the question, is it not? Besides, as the vampire as stated, we all have a general understanding of the risks we must undertake should we venture out to the outside world. The finer details shall come later into discussion once we know more beyond the small tidbits of information that Reimu and Yukari have provided us with."

"My occupation as a doctor requires me to speak in a very objective and harsh manner, Yuyuko; you of all people should know this. What I am trying to convey is that we must be prepared for any risk that may affect us, even those that we may never see coming."

"And while I already knew that, I say that we shouldn't let speculative knowledge with no concrete basis for evidence dictate our course of action. Doctors are scientists, no? You conduct experiments too, right, Eirin? So why be a theoretical scientist now, of all times?"

"Because concrete evidence is heavily lacking, despite the wealth of information that those two have provided, given it is not very much to begin with. Is that not why I am making conjectures about the possible consequences of involving ourselves in this quagmire?"

"So then, in order to acquire that concrete evidence which you mention, we must venture outside with some of the risks that you have mentioned in mind. When the greater risks arise, we will deal with them accordingly."

"But on the subject of risks, does anyone else not find this Losira character to be a risk itself?" the Flower Master youkai, Yuuka, mutters. "Given the choice of words that Reimu and Yukari decided to use to describe her, she is giving off very suspicious vibes herself."

"I must go with Kazami here," the wind goddess of the Moriya Shrine, Kanako, agrees. "The fact that you met in such a timely manner does not sit well with me. Perhaps it may have been coincidence, considering this...Beta Block system of trafficking on Earth, perhaps. But one cannot deny the convenience of Reimu's situation."

"But Kanako-san, are you and your family not from the outside world initially?" asks Satori, the overseer of Hell. "You, among us, with Hakurei-san and Yakumo-san, should know more about the context of our incident."

"I'm afraid that is not possible, Komeiji-san," the Moriya shrine miko, Sanae, says. "We have never heard of this serenity energy source ourselves, either. Given that it has been a few years both since our arrival here at Gensokyou and the discovery of serenity, the latter must have been shortly after our departure from Earth."

"Is it like nuclear fusion?" one of Satori's pets, a hell raven by the name of Utsuho, asks eagerly, and Satori pinches her thigh to silence her.

"No, Okuu, they said it's magic energy, they already said that," the second pet, a kasha, named Rin, fiercely whispers to her. "Now shut up before Satori-sama yells at us!"

"Sorry..." the raven mumbles apologetically as the head Buddhist monk, Hijiri, clears her throat.

"I think it is a common consensus we have here that we have little choice but to eventually go to the outside world," Hijiri concludes. "Whether we wish to or not, whether we desire it or not is out of the question; our situation, unlike many other incidents, as stated before, concerns all of Gensokyou and its people in the matter of its very existence, not just a singular area of concern. May we all agree on this?"

A general wave of agreement rolls across the room, allowing Hijiri to continue.

"Then with that done, I am hearing much talk of risks and trust, and what concerns me personally the most is the lady that Reimu-san and Yukari-san have met during their time in the outside yesterday. It is my suggestion that we establish trust with her, first and foremost, for she is undoubtedly our strongest ally in our endeavor to solve this incident."

Many voices of agreement pop up again. "She's right, we've gotta know who we're working with here," Raiko, the drum tsukumogami, declares. "Just because Reimu 'n Yukari spent a day or so with her doesn't mean we can still trust her, y'know. Besides, it can't just be me who thinks that the fact that the Losira girl's cooperation so far with them's been too weird? Why's she got a reason to help us? She doesn't even know us!"

"That's true; Losira has never given us a legitimate and convincing reason why she has extended us a helping hand, Reimu," Yukari notes. "She even mentioned that she prefers working alone, did she not, the night of our first meeting?"

"Yeah, that's what I don't get either," Reimu concedes. "...but..."

Yukari glances over to Reimu, noticing her pensive facade. "...but?"

Reimu is recalling the last moments of the conversation that she and Yukari had with Losira, and some of Losira's words are coming back and replaying themselves inside Reimu's head.

_I so happen to live in a world where trust is taboo, where trust is forbidden, where trust simply doesn't fucking exist..._

"...come to think of it, Losira was talking about trust and crap like that, wasn't she, Yukari?" Reimu asks her mentor, who thinks for a little bit.

"Oh, yes, she did. Did she not say something along the lines of not having to trust her if we did not wish to?"

"Yeah, something like that."

Remilia leans forward on her side of the kotatsu. "Really? She said such a thing? But why would she say that?"

"Who knows, maybe she knows dat she ain't dat trustworthy-lookin' jus' yet," Marisa suggests. "Dis prolly ain't 'er first time helpin' out people she ain't got a clue 'bout, by da sounds 'a things."

"Even then, that is too optimistic a belief with which to view that girl," Shou insists. "I do not mean to sound the pessimist and accuse her of scheming against us, but like Hijiri-sama has stated, we need to have some sort of proof or...or...some sort of guarantee that she will not do anything to harm us."

"Then in that case, why don't we just invite her here?" suggests Miko.

A general murmuring.

"Invite her here? Explain yourself, Miko," demands Hijiri.

"If you insist. Well, to begin, Losira seems quite the interesting character, so personally, I would very much like to meet her with all her experiences in the outside world." Miko explains. "I do not know if others share the same desire - er, well, technically I do, but ignoring that - in any case, in order to establish a sense of general trust with her, we ought to invite her to Gensokyou and have her spend a few days here and explain to her firsthand our situation. That way, she, too, will have a concrete understanding of our troubles instead of merely going off of what Reimu and Yukari have recounted to her whilst they were in the outside."

"I, for one, am for that notion," Alice chimes in. "According to Reimu, this Losira woman has stated multiple times that she is capable of magic but has evidently shown none, if I am not mistaken, Reimu?" Reimu nods, confirming Alice's presumption. "Then there you go. For me, it would be much nicer knowing what kind of magic she is capable of, if she has the capacity at all and is not bullshitting us."

"Never mind her kind of magic, their entire system of fighting in the outside seems quite frightening, if I must be frank," Keine says. "Our danmaku are meant to be nonlethal, yet for such people in the outside world to wield objects that fire danmaku at speeds that cause the danmaku to cut through skin and bone? Such a thought would display the outside world as more dangerous than Gensokyou!"

"Yeah, there's that, too," Mokou lazily repeats as another general murmuring, this time more hurried and urgent, rolls across the room. "Though, obviously, me 'n Kaguya 'n Eirin don't gotta give two shits 'bout anythin'."

"Actually, Mokou-tan, come to think of it, do you know if the Hourai Elixir still works even in the outside?" Keine asks her friend.

"It should; it's the fuckin' Hourai Elixir fer fuck's sake. Jus' 'cuz I'm on another side 'a the world ain't gonna mean jack shit."

"Ne, Eirin-sensei, I'd like to meet this Losira, she seems a lot like me just from the kinds of clothes she wears!" Eirin's assistant, Udongein, chuckles.

"I pray that she proves a better assistant than you, however," Eirin returns with a sadistic grin on her face, causing Udongein to pout angrily.

"B-But I'm not a bad assistant, I try my hardest no matter what kind of task you put me through!"

"I wonder, considering your lousy effort last week with that sudden rash epidemic through the human village..."

"_T-T-That's because you told me to tend to nearly 244 people in only four hours! ! ! ! !_" Udongein starts bopping her fists against Eirin's left shoulder as the Doctor giggles sadistically. "Even I can't do everything by myself! ! ! !"

Reimu raps her gohei on the kotatsu for attention. "Now that hopefully we're done talking 'cause this meeting's gone for way too long than what I'm comfortable with, I'm gonna try putting forth a suggestion that hopefully everyone's fine with, going off of what's been said so far. Tomorrow, when Yukari and I return to Earth to meet with Losira, we'll ask her to stay with us here in this shrine for a day. In the event that she accepts and does come, we'll send out messages to everyone saying that she's here, and whoever wants to come meet her and ask her stuff can do so. Is that fine?"

While not everyone's consent can be heard, there are no dissident voices.

"Then it's settled, we'll do that. Meeting adjourned; now get the hell out of my shrine! And you, Okuu, stop snarfing down all my snacks! ! !"

"Eeep! Sowwwyyyyy! ! !" the hell raven gasps through her mouthful of rice crackers as Reimu beckons to Yukari to follow her outside the shrine for a quick word. Yukari pulls herself out of the gap she is occupying and walks after the shrine maiden.

"What is it, Reimu?"

"So honestly, Yukari, what do you think of Losira?"

"Losira...?"

"As in, do you think she really is bs'ing us? Or you think she's serious about everything she's been talking about?"

"Why? Why do you ask this?"

"Because, you remember that conversation we had just before we left Earth earlier today. She mentioned that Beta Block that was coming and that she was gonna have us use it. Don't you find that...you know, really suspicious? Like, why would she want us to use it when she already knows we can already use our own magic?"

"To point out, I believe she was referring to the fact that we would be able to gain access to more powers should we use that Block," Yukari suggests. "Of course, I am only assuming, but that is what she sounded like."

"I don't know. The part that's really iffy for me is the part where she mentioned that she'll 'have us use it' or something. There's something with her wording that's making me really uncomfortable, and I don't like it."

"You believe that she is setting us up to use us for her own gains, or for the gains of her associates."

"See? You can see it too, right?"

The two friends fall silent, unable to come to a decisive verdict.

"Tsk...god _fucking_ damn it," Reimu hisses, heavily irritated and annoyed. "If only we could fix the barrier from here and not have to waste our damn time on some dumb bitch in the outside world..."

Yukari puts her hand on Reimu's head. "Do not become agitated, child," Yukari whispers. "This time, it is not only you or your friends who must resolve this incident; everyone is here to help."

"Yeah, that's nice 'n all, but I really, really don't like her."

"Losira? I've noticed."

"And one last thing, Yukari."

"Hm?"

"That video or whatever that they showed us in that solar system room thingy - that guy, do you think he was really using magic?"

It takes Yukari a few minutes to come up with a suitable answer.

"If that is what they call magic, then the guns of the outside world would seem very, very irrelevant, no?"

* * *

Mid-evening. A dark brown-haired girl with an eyepatch over her right eye walks slowly out of a set of sliding front doors, passing underneath a sign whose letters spell _Torrance Memorial Hospital_. She exhales on her hands, rubbing them together.

"Cold..."

Then, she feels a vibration in her jeans pocket and pulls out her Google Nexus. "'sup?"

"Hey yo, Losira," the familiar and bouncy voice of Kane sings through the phone. "Deimos asked me to ask you how your trip went."

"Tell him it went okay. David's fine. He just wanted to chat a little bit."

"Mkayyy, I'll tell him~"

"Kane, by the way, can you pass the phone to Lauren if she's there?"

"Yeah sure, hold on~"

Losira saunters her way to her car, skygazing into the dark starless sky.

"Hello, Losira?"

"Hey, Lauren, it's me."

"Yes, what do you need?"

"You know 'bout the Beta Block that's comin' in tomorrow?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"Sorry, but I'ma ask to use it myself."

"Well, I do not mind, but are you sure? The last time you tried -"

"No, not on myself, idiot. Those two girls I had you meet yesterday - I'ma have 'em use it 'n see what happens."

"Oh, I see. Alright, permission granted. Be sure to report on what you find, okay?"

"Yeah, gotcha."

"Have a good night."

"You too."

Losira taps the off button on her phone and stows it away in her pocket again, climbing into her Avendator.

"Sure hope they don't turn out the way I did..."

Sighing with exasperation, Losira revs the engine and pulls out of the hospital parking lot to drive back home.


	6. AK-107

"Whaaaaaat? ! Wait, then why didn't you call me here yesterday!?" Hinanawi Tenshi, the lazy Celestial of Heaven, whines as Reimu walks back inside her shrine after sharing some tea with her Celestial companion, who has come down for a visit.

"Hey, we tried calling you, but you were off somewhere else doing something," Reimu replies back, fetching her set of contemporary clothes and beginning to change into them.

"Yeah, but that's because I off eating peaches with my sister!" Tenshi says, pouting angrily. "You know it's not every day I get to see her!"

"And you know that's not my problem, so I could care less."

"You're so mean!"

"As were you, when you wrecked my shrine."

"Ugh-" Tenshi winces as Reimu's sharp words stab her right in the heart. "Well...you know that was by accident-"

"And you know I can kick your ass any day of the week and call it an accident, too."

"Okay, okay, I get it, I get it, fine! I should've been there, and I wasn't, so boo hoo me!" Tenshi sighs. "But seriously, there wasn't much I could do, and even if you don't wanna believe me, not like I could do much about it. But everything you just said just now...things must be gettin' real interesting soon, huh?"

"Interesting? More like a big ass pain," Reimu retorts, pulling on her shirt. "Thank God you're too lazy to take part in it, huh?"

"Eh? Er, no, that's not what I meant! I'm just saying, in case you need me anywhere, you can call me anytime."

"Yeah, and find out you're screwing around somewhere," Reimu smirks, "in which case, no thanks."

Tenshi scratches her scalp, annoyed by Reimu's sarcasm. "Look, I'm just trying to lend you a hand here 'cause it seems like everyone's gonna help out somehow. So don't come crying to me that you needed me when you just acted like a bitch to me when I did volunteer."

"Don't confuse 'volunteerism' with 'arrogance', just letting you know." Reimu holds her hairbow in her mouth while she fluffs out her long, dark brown hair. "We probably will be having some people come with us over to the outside though, so keep an eye out."

Tenshi watches as Reimu pulls on her jeans. "But seriously, these're supposed to be clothes that the humans in the outside wear?"

"Yeah, I was pretty surprised, too," Reimu says. "I mean, I knew people outside wore stuff to be comfortable and not battle-ready, but I can see why they wear these all the time."

"You'll be heading out soon?"

"Well...not soon, but soon enough, just waiting on Yukari to get here."

"Oh, okay. When'll she come by?"

"Mmmm...she's actually supposed to come in ten minutes."

"In other words, an hour. I see."

"Basically."

Reimu walks out of her bedroom and out of the shrine as Tenshi follows her with her gaze.

"Where're you going now?" asks Tenshi, being bored and having nothing better to do.

"Some stuff you don't need to know about. Yet," replies Reimu, taking the small black case that is sitting on her shrine's porch that she had set out earlier in the morning while she completed morning chores. Tenshi tails the miko to the shrine's backyard, where Genji, Reimu's turtle, basks in the small pond with a clay pipe in its mouth.

"Hey, Genji, it's gonna be a bit loud around here, so just letting you know," Reimu warns the turtle, and it nods slowly, water bubbles floating lazily out of the pipe's end. Reimu sets the case down on an old beat-up chair, unlocks its latches, and pulls the top open, revealing its contents. Tenshi whistles.

"So these are those 'guns' you're talking about? For weapons so dangerous, they don't seem all that dangerous," Tenshi remarks, reaching for the handgun, but Reimu slaps her hand away suddenly.

"Ow, the hell's that for? Lemme see it!" Tenshi rubs the back of her hand, indignant at Reimu's sudden motion, but Reimu scoffs at her, taking the USP .45 pistol in her left hand.

"You're not touching this. You didn't spend eight hours training with something like this."

Tenshi gawks at her.

"You actually trained? What the fu-"

Reimu hits Tenshi's head with the butt of the pistol, watching Tenshi grovel on her knees.

"Owowowow...okay, okay, I get it, it's dangerous, so stop hitting me!" Tenshi growls irritably as she gets up again.

"You're a Celestial; something like that shouldn't hurt," Reimu retorts as she takes one magazine with ten rounds of training bullets and slides it into the grip of the pistol until a distinct _click!_ pops from within the gun's magazine receiver.

"That's because I wasn't expecting you to hit me so suddenly! And it was the corner, too, goddamn it..."

Tenshi inhales sharply as the pain on her head pulses viciously again, but Reimu shoves a stack of shikigami papers into her face.

"Make yourself useful and throw these about 25 feet in front of me."

"Huh? Wait, since when was I your training partner?"

"Since now, 'cause I said so. Now shut up and do as I say."

Tenshi reluctantly takes the shikigami papers. "What would you do without me, sheesh..."

"You do nothing but visit my shrine, like, four times a week and mooch off my snacks and tea, I don't even wanna hear it, you stupid angel." Reimu lets go of the slide, chambering the first round into place, and flicks the safety switch off.

"Then like this?" Tenshi tosses the first shikigami up into the air, and it soars up some ten meters off the ground. Reimu snaps her aim onto it and squeezes the trigger, and a loud _bang!_ causes Tenshi to jump as the shikigami bursts into pieces of magic energy that quickly scatter into the air, the training bullet hitting the bubble barrier that Reimu had set up prior to this event.

"What in the - hey, you never warned me it was gonna be _that _loud!" Tenshi yelps, wincing from the loud report of the USP .45.

"Get used to it. At least we aren't doing this inside."

"BUT WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS INSIDE IN THE FIRST PLACE? ! ? !"

"Yukari and I trained inside some sort of shooting facility, so we wore ear protection. You're lucky you didn't have to wear that heavy thing for eight hours, now toss me another one."

Reimu fires off the next eight rounds perfectly, and at her ninth bullet, Yukari drops out of the air from a gap, also in her modern-day Earth clothing.

"Oh, training, I see, what a rare sight. How is it going?"

"Looks like I got the hang of this stuff. You ready to go, Yukari?"

"Certainly."

"Did you even bother using the gun Losira gave you?"

"Well...I meant to...but Chen was at home, so I did not want to attract her attention and get her hurt."

Tenshi interrupts. "I forgot to ask, but does it actually hurt that much if you get hit by those gun things?"

Reimu and Yukari stare at Tenshi wordlessly. Then, without warning again, Reimu raises her gun, points it at Tenshi's left boot, and fires, and consequently, the shrine is drowned in a certain Celestial's screams of agony.

"You're lucky these're just training bullets; a real one would've done a hell of a lot more than just leave you with a sore foot," Reimu bellows over Tenshi's howls, closing the open slide on her handgun. "

"I do not think there was a real need to actually shoot her, Reimu," Yukari says with disdain. "I do think that was quite uncalled for."

"Actually, to be honest, I was kinna curious how much it'd hurt to get hit by a bullet," Reimu snickers. "I guess I have a good idea now."

A small Keystone crashes into the side of Reimu's head. "You bitch! That time, even _I _know that I didn't do anything! ! ! !" Tenshi hisses through her teeth, the pain still throbbing in her left foot. "That fucking hurts, even if I did have my Celestial armor on, I still think that would've hurt me! ! ! !"

Reimu gets up with a deadpan look, not caring at all about the Keystone that was thrown at her. "Next time when I need a test dummy, I'll call you, 'k?"

"WHY ME! ? ? !"

"What do you mean why, you know why."

Leaving Tenshi fuming, Reimu leads Yukari to the front of her shrine, underneath the big red archway.

"It's nine, Yukari. She's probably waiting for us there."

Yukari puts two fingers into the air and drags them downwards, literally tearing open a portal to the outside world called Earth. "After you."

Reimu turns before she hops on through. "Tenshi, look after the shrine, 'k? And don't raze it down again like you did last time."

"I said I won't do that anymore! Now hurry up and go, you meanie!" the Celestial calls from the shrine porch, sticking her tongue out at her.

"We'll be back by sundown, hopefully. If Marisa comes along and asks where I am, tell her that, okay?" Reimu and Yukari slip through the gap as it eats itself away.

* * *

Twenty minutes before the designated meeting...

_Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!_

The loud but muffled pops of suppressed sniper fire ping with metallic ricochets of the bullets slamming against steel.

"All headshots, nicely done."

Lauren's voice buzzes through Losira's earpiece as Losira, wielding an MK-14 Designated Marksman Rifle with an Archangel 9.25'' Ti Suppressor in her fingerless gloved hands, folds down the bipod legs and ejects the empty 7.62x54mm cartridged magazine, pulling the sniper rifle off the hood of her Avendator sports car. It is parked in the middle of a training range within the Supply Depot, quarantined away from the main depot storage facilities and the main streets that lie adjacent to the compound, filled with dummy targets surrounding the lone gunner.

"Oh, Losira, wait, don't disassemble your gun, we just got an emergency call from a local police force."

Losira, about to twist the suppressor off the muzzle, stops her hand, unbuttoning her top button on her sky-blue dress shirt whose sleeves are rolled up almost all the way to the shoulders.

"Why? What now? Why the hell would the police want our cooperation?"

"There is a situation developing in Torrance, at the Skypark Office Complexes. Some gang members from El Segundo have accidentally run into each other there and are having a standoff right now. The police have been contacted, but they are keeping eyes on them from afar for now. They are suspected to be heavily armed."

Losira groans as she locks another magazine into the receiver and simply lays her DMR across the back seats of her car, throwing back her long dark brown hair. "Can you relay to them that I'm not a damn police officer? Thanks."

"Losira, there are civilians at the location of the standoff, they are not to be harmed by the crossfire that may ensue! On top of which, don't you need to pick up those girls in eighteen minutes or so?"

Lauren, sitting in the command center of their hidden headquarters underneath the depot compound, hears the revving of an engine through her own earpiece.

"Don't you understand I'm gonna do it anyway? For fuck's sake."

The Avendator vrooms and screeches against the sandy dirt and races out of the depot.

"Ah, please don't go so fast, the guards will be startled!"

"They already know my car, who the hell else'll be stupid enough to ruin their Lamborghini like this?" Losira snorts as she almost smashes the parting gates open before heading towards her rendezvous point.

* * *

"Kane, do you read me?"

"Loud 'n clear."

"How long have you been lying there?"

"Ever since it started, heh."

Losira's sports car rolls slowly into the south parking lot of the Skypark Office Complexes to prevent attracting much attention.

"Visuals on targets..." Losira mumbles as she spies a total of a dozen men of African American and Hispanic descent. "Seems like they're just from no-name gangs tryin' to make names for 'emselves, but why they'd do it here's beyond me..."

"We got police plainsclothes surrounding the area in case shit hits the fan, but now that you're here, don't even think we need anyone else."

"That's not what I'm worried about. The girls I'm picking up are gonna come any moment now, and I can't have witnesses."

"Why? Where're they landin'?"

"Markin' waypoint."

Losira shuts off her car engine and presses a button on her remote car key, lazing a coordinate that is automatically relayed to Kane's over-eye HUD display.

"Yikes...why the hell'd they drop in there?"

"Not their fault, I don't think they can control where their portal thing was set up to begin with, otherwise they'd've put it somewhere a little more secluded. In any case, These guys need to go."

"You're lucky you don't need to deal with civvies, since these dumbass gangbangers scared 'em all off with their little standoff thing goin' on here."

Kane is leaning against the railing of the rooftop of one of the office buildings, armed with a suppressed M110 SASS whose muzzle is pointed at the head of one of the gang members. So far, two of the rival gang members have been engaged in a pointless knife fight that has not progressed since its initiation.

"Are these fuckheads downies or something? Literally, all they've been doing is dancing around a pow-wow thinking their little daggers're wands 'r some shit," Kane remarks caustically.

"That's what I usually think whenever I see a federal agency," Losira counters as she climbs out of her car and opens the door away from the gang members so that they cannot see her double-check that her DMR is ready to fire.

"Live or dull?"

"Dull. They're not worth killing." Losira watches as her right hand pulls back the action slide and load the first rubber bullet into the chamber of her rifle. "I only got this one mag on me, and it's only got five rounds left."

"Huh? I've got some training mags on me too, want me to take out the rest?"

"No need..." Losira pops on her sunglasses, half of which serve no functional use due to her yin-yang eyepatch, and dons a black business jacket and tie. "I have my two friends with me."

"You mean you _always_have your friends with you," Kane giggles, but she abruptly stops when she realizes that her partner is walking directly for the gang members. "Uhhh...what the fuck, Losira?"

But Losira pays her no heed as she draws close enough to the gang members for them to notice her. One of the black gang members calls out to the young black man engaged in the knife fight with his Hispanic rival. "'Ey yo, homie, we got a some rando bitch comin' here." The gang members look over to see who is approaching them, and Losira swiftly confronts the two knife fighters.

"Hoo! Hot damn, giiirl, I'd ask ya how much ya'd charge fer a quickie if I ain't 'bout ta shank dis fuckin' Mexi 'cross his fuckin' neck," the black knife wielder screeches, and his fellow comrades hoot in sync. "'n what's with dat funny lookin' gun on yer back? Ya airsoft?"

"You boys shootin' some sorta lame music video here? Where's the cameras, dude?" Losira, ignoring the insult, asks blatantly sarcastically.

"Music video? Da fuck, chica, mebbe my buddies sold ya too much crack, we rumblin' down 'ere!" the Hispanic man, with his switchblade still in hand, waves his weapon at his rival. Losira snorts.

"Rumblin'? You call this shit rumblin'? You two fuckin' suck more cock than the last hoes who blew you. Get guns or something, just quit using knives."

The comment riles up the rumblers. "Dis hoe, what da fuck ya think yer sayin', comin' up ta us 'n tryin' ta fuck wit' us -"

The Hispanic man, who is closer to Losira, lunges at her with a backhanded stab, but she grabs his hand as the switchblade passes harmlessly between her index and middle fingers and chops his elbow, right on his funny bone to cause his hand to let go of the knife by reflex. Snatching the switchblade, she thrusts it straight back up through the palm of her attacker's hand that let go of the same knife and kicks him in his stomach, letting his body's momentum rip a bigger exit wound in his hand as it scrapes against the blade. This single attack instantly unites the once-hostile gang members as they immediately converge onto her with cries of alarm, hastily pulling out their own pistols.

Losira twirls the switchblade in her left hand and chucks it at the shoulder of the nearest enemy before reaching into her jacket and withdrawing two slick black Anaconda .357 revolvers loaded with nonlethal rubber bullets. Before her adversaries even see her weapons, she calmly cocks the hammers and unloads onto the gang members. One by one, each suspect falls screaming and writhing in agony as the rubber bullets, fired at virtually point-blank range, crash into their bodies and punch nasty bruises where they land. Within seconds, Losira empties both cylinders, spins them in her hands, and pushes out the chambers to eject the spent cartridges that spill onto the same asphalt on which her victims lie groveling in pain. Snapping the now-empty chambers back into place, Losira jams them back into her belt and unholsters the MK-14 strapped over her shoulder, popping open the sight cover on the scope as she spots one guy trying to crawl over to his nearby pistol that she had shot out of his hand.

* * *

Hakurei Reimu and Yakumo Yukari, dressed in their contemporary garb, hop out of Yukari's portal just in time to see Losira pull the trigger on her olive-green DMR, and the shrill holler of a man being struck by a high-powered rubber bullet onto his shoulderblade almost seems to rattle the windows on the nearby office bulidings.

"Er...what the...?" Reimu looks around, very confused by the mass of twitching bodies surrounding Losira, who slings her rifle over her shoulder again and waves at the newcomers.

"Hey, 'sup. You guys came like a minute late, what took you?" Losira casually remarks, putting her right hand in her skirt pocket and leaning on her left leg.

"I did not expect you to be the kind to fuss over one minute of tardiness," Yukari notes. "But I must say, this is quite a welcome party."

"Oh, right, sorry 'bout this, these nutjobs were fighting, and I was asked to come break it up."

"By the way, what _are_ you wearing?" Reimu points at Losira's face.

"This? These are sunglasses." Losira takes off her Agent Smith-like shades and sticks it in the middle of her collar. "You guys had something to eat yet? I'm kinna hungry since I've been training a bit this morning. Plus, we gotta scram, since the police're gonna be on their way for cleanup duty." Losira nods them towards her car, and they leave the scene, getting into the Avendator.

"Kane, confirm mop-up at Skypark Office Complex south parking lot," Losira asserts, pressing down on her earpiece in her left ear.

"Confirmed, local police forces that were on standby are converging on your position." Kane's voice pops in her ear. "You gonna tackle that Beta Block when it drops with those girls?"

"That's the plan."

"But are you sure they're up for an actual job?"

"I learned my tools of the trade by baptism by fire. And as far as I'm concerned, that's the best way to learn anything."

The Avendator's engine screeches as they roll out of the parking lot.

* * *

"So you lot want me to go over to Gensokyou to talk with your friends over there?"

Losira bites into her Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger, sitting at a table with Yukari and Reimu at a nearby Carl's Jr.

"Yes. We have decided to ask you to come with us tonight to speak with a gathering of our comrades at Reimu's shrine so that they know who you are and can trust you when they do decide to assist us here on Earth," Yukari says, nibbling on a French fry.

"Dip that in some ketchup, Yukari, it'll taste better," Reimu points at the small cup of ketchup on Losira's tray, and Yukari obliges. "You don't mind coming over for a bit, do you?"

"..."

Losira does not answer and instead chews thoughtfully.

"So...we'd leave tonight...when do I get back?" she finally asks.

"Tomorrow, unless you find a reason to stay longer," Reimu replies, sipping on some Sprite. "I don't really like having guests in my shrine to begin with. At least not for very long durations if I can help it. What's this drink called?"

"It's Sprite," Losira says, slurping on her own Coke.

"No, I meant, like, what this drink is, not the name. I already saw what it's called."

"Oh. It's soda. A carbonated beverage that's manufactured to taste good." Losira munches on her fries. "Most sodas aren't healthy at all, partly because of what's put into them."

"If these beverages are not healthy, why do you and your people continue to drink them?" Yukari asks, looking around and noting the plethora of soda cups that other customers have.

"Because, like I said, the shit tastes good," Losira repeats. "Even if you drink only soda all day, it's not like it'll actually kill you. It might make you a diabetic later on, but that's not my problem." Losira bites into her burger again, chewing while she points at Yukari and swallowing quickly to speak. "Surely you know this too, but most humans are ignorant. I mean, we're all animals in that at an instinctual level, we're no different from them. The need to eat's one of the instinctive impulses that humans have - if we start starvin', we don't care what we eat. Not to mention we don't give two shits what we have to do not to starve."

"But are you not taking this example too far? The people around us are surely not starving."

Losira sips some more Coke. "Fine, maybe I did go too far. But other than that, soda's engrained into the very cultural image of the country we live in. Around the world, countries laugh at America 'cause one of the biggest stereotypes about this country's the fact that Americans eat 'n drink nothing but burgers, fries, 'n Coke. And to a certain extent, it's true. 'Cause this shit's not only cheap but good."

Some of the barbeque sauce from Losira's cheeseburger dribbles out from the bottom and slaps the paper on the tray as she bites into it again. "Then again, this isn't something you should eat all the time anyway, and most people know that. People might be ignorant, but for the most part they aren't stupid, especially when it comes to the stuff they eat. Well, there _are_ exceptions..."

The eyepatch girl rolls her visible eye as a particularly fat man waddles by, holding three paper bags bulging with food. "Bottom line, if it tastes good, people will eat it or drink it unless they find out it's gonna kill 'em right away." She stabs three fries at once into her small paper cup of ketchup. "Kinda like half the faggots who hunt the Beta Blocks."

Yukari and Reimu watch Losira finish her meal. "Care to explain that?" Reimu inquires, tipping her own drink at Losira.

"Explain what?"

"The last thing you just said. You're saying something about how half the people who go after the Beta Blocks only do it out of pleasure or something? Doesn't make sense."

Losira clears her throat. "I mean that for normal people who know about the Beta Block trafficking system and market, it's an extremely way to make easy money. All it takes is for you to get lucky, have a Block drop in right in front of your house, and there you go - all you need to do is call up some agencies who're in over their heels for the crap 'n sort out the highest bidder. I've seen people rake in thousands, millions just for a single Beta Block 'cause there're dumbasses out there who'll castrate themselves to get their hands on even one of the Blocks." Losira spits in disgust onto her tray, shaking her head. "Fuckin' delusional asshats who don't even know what they're handling..."

"That brings up a point I want to mention. If these Beta Blocks are considered so valuable by these individuals and groups who wish to gain possession of them for whatever reason, why do they not simply steal them? Would that not be a more sensible and lucrative alternative as opposed to paying exorbitant amounts of money?" Yukari asks.

"That's just unreasonable. You're basically paying people to look around for people who might have possession of those Blocks. It's actually really easy to hide them, given their size, any kid could do it. You can't tell people to just look for something and hope they find it without giving them some sort of lead or information that could help them pinpoint the location of one of those things. Otherwise they'd get sued for trespassing on private property, so that's outta the question," Losira replies, wiping her mouth with a napkin.

"Then what if they hire people like us? People who can use magic or some ability that could take them to a Beta Block?" Reimu interjects.

Losira gazes at her with the kind of look a seasoned war veteran would give a fresh recruit in the middle of a war. "No dice on that, either. Everyone who's capable of magic're too busy trying to get these Beta Blocks for 'emselves."

"To use on themselves or to augment their own powers?" Yukari asks.

"Basically, more or less." Losira stands up, taking her empty tray with her. "And, as you already know, that's what I'm gonna have you two do this afternoon."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the ST6 central headquarters...

"Find anything new?" Chuck asks in his cheerful Indian accent as he and Kane enter the logistics center, where Lauren is busy working at the main command station with the newest Beta Block that Losira had delivered two days prior. Kane places a saucer with a small slice of blueberry pie next to Lauren in the air, where it simply floats, waiting for Lauren to eat the food.

"Still transferring vertical structuring, Chuck," Lauren calls without looking to see who has entered her workspace.

"I got this when I drove up from Torrance," Kane explains. "Hof's Hut. They had a pie sale goin' on, and I couldn't pass it up."

"Oh, really? Thank you, how much did you get?"

"Two blueberries, six strawberries, and five cherries."

"Pies?"

"Yup!"

The girls giggle. "I suppose we won't have to worry about running out snacks here," Lauren concludes. Chuck, towering over his squadmates, analyzes the code that is transcribed around Lauren in a semi-cylindrical format. Dozens of lines of cryptic code written in Latin seemingly hang in the air, displayed from no visible monitor and instead just from the space itself.

"This line. Why no simplification?" Chuck asks, pointing at one of the lines to Lauren's left.

"Ah, I still need to extract more information from the Block first," Lauren responds. "This one is a tricky one, all right. It is a little less cooperative than the others..." She turns to keep typing on a holographic keyboard. "I am going to extract everything first, and then condense the info afterwards."

As Kane grabs Haley's Comet and resumes her joyride around the solar system, Chuck stands over Lauren's shoulder, studying the lines of code that Lauren adds to the lengthening list of information for a few silent minutes. Then, Chuck breaks the silence with a quiet, gruff version of his usually loud and jovial voice.

"This one unique. We get new info from this."

"You can see it too, huh?" Lauren nods. "If we can crack this Block, it will potentially yield us much valuable information..."

"Here." Chuck leans over Lauren's chair and points to a line. "Never see before. Might be useful...I think...possible mutation of serenity? Maybe, maybe."

They work together like this for some time until they are interrupted by a call that resounds around the entire room, as the headquarters itself is an electronic signal receptor. Chuck answers the call by pressing his earpiece.

"Hello?"

"Hey yo, Chuck, it's me, Big." Big's sharp and business-like voice is pumped from embedded speakers all around the headquarters space.

"Yes, I hear you. What you want?"

"Right now I'm with Sanford and Deimos. One of our sleeper agents gave us the slip about two suspects who're going after the next Beta Block in the area. Relay this to Losira, will ya?"

"Got it. You tell Losira this?"

"No, not yet, and we can't right now, we're busy at the airfield fixin' their fuckin' useless jets. Can you pass the word along to her for us?"

"Sure. Will tell her."

"Alright, cheers."

The call cuts.

* * *

"There're two others comin' after the Beta Block?" Losira asks, almost not even caring about the fact.

"Yes. Big say so. Be careful," Chuck replies from their HQ.

"Well, it'd be nice if y'all had some info on 'em," she suggests bitterly, navigating the Avendator onto the 405 freeway leading to Los Angeles. "I don't wanna have to pop caps in civvies again by accident 'cause I wasn't given shit for identification."

"No ID info, sorry. Just be careful." The call cuts.

Losira stares at her smartphone dubiously. "The fuck? Usually they'd give me some sorta intel on who's after us. Ah, whatever. Gonna kill 'em all the same."

"What seems to be the problem?" Yukari asks from the back seat. Reimu is sitting shotgun this time.

"We've got company. Two unknown targets supposedly going after the same Beta Block as we are. Problem is, we have no idea who they are or where they're at. We've only gotta hope that we can reach the Block before they do."

"The Block hasn't even dropped yet, has it? When does it come again?" Reimu asks.

"In about an hour. We should get there with some time to spare - enough time to get rid of whoever's after our Block and get the hell out clean," Losira replies as she weaves the Avendator this way and that through the heavy but fast afternoon traffic.

"Do you have any idea who they could be? Maybe one of those A.A.H.W. people your friends told us about?"

"We won't know until we get there and meet 'em in person, unfortunately." Losira rolls her Jolly Rancher around with her teeth. "Though, if I had ta guess...I have a few guesses, actually. Some of 'em are A.A.H.W., some aren't. Hopefully we run into friendlies, but I'm not banking on it. Most likely, the people we might run into are just indies...and if there're only two of 'em, more 'n likely capable of magic as well. In short -"

"They're pretty dangerous," Reimu finishes.

"Most likely, yeah." Losira reaffirms. "You still got those USP's I gave you two days ago, right?"

"Yes, they are in the trunk," Yukari's voice trails rather sleepily from the back seat.

"After we-"

"Yukari, are you sleeping again? Damn it!" Reimu turns in her seat, cutting off Losira as she watches Yukari drift off.

"Give me a break, Reimu, traveling in these cars seems to make me sleepy...you know my sleep schedule at home..."

Reimu opens her mouth again to bark at her companion, but it is Losira's turn to interrupt. "Let her be, Reimu. I used to get tired easily whenever I was being driven around too."

The modern shrine maiden turns to Losira indignantly. "But she sleeps freakin' twelve hours a day back home in Gensokyou! She doesn't need more sleep than that, she's a youkai for God's sake!"

"Does it look like I give a shit what you two do back home?" Losira gives Reimu a nasty "Bitch, please" look. "In the worst case, I'd much rather her sleep here in my car than drift off while we're on the job. Even if I don't normally work with people 'sfar as my job's concerned, I prefer to make sure I keep the people I'm workin' with alive. Rep goes a long way 'round these parts."

Soon, they hear Yukari's soft snores.

"She always snore like that, though?" Losira says, amusedly, looking at her backseat passenger through her rearview mirror.

"Duh, heh. You heard her from the night we spent at your place," Reimu chuckles.

"Hm. Anyways, before you cut me off...when we get there, I'ma have you 'n Yukari get those pistols I gave you the other day 'n stock up on live bullets. I got a box of .45's in the trunk underneath the flooring, so remember that."

"You think this job'll be that dangerous, huh."

"At the end of the day, it's much better for you to go home alive than your enemy." The sound of candy cracking resonates from inside Losira's mouth as she bites down on her lollipop suddenly, almost as if she is chewing glass. "They say that you can never be too safe whenever you're dealing with risky shit, and as far as I can tell, it certainly applies here."

Losira reaches into her dashboard, opens it, and withdraws a cherry Jolly Rancher lollipop, offering it to Reimu. "Want one?"

* * *

"Hehe...I wonder how long it has been since we dined on Korean cuisine?"

"Too long, Mary, too long! Ohhh, I'm so glad we found an outlet here!"

"I sure am exhausted...it is too bad we have no vehicle access..."

"Hey, hey, I did suggest that we take a bus or taxi or something, but you're the one who said we needed to _use our budget wisely_!"

"Of course we do. We have limited funds, do we not?"

"Limited funds my ass! We got freakin' four grand in American bucks to blow for only one week!"

"Yes, Renko, I understand we do have a preposterous amount of money for the time we have allotted for ourselves -"

"FOUR - GRAND, MERRY! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ENGLISH? FOUR - FREAKIN' - GRAND! IN AMERICAN _DOLLARS, _NOT YEN!"

"Ahhh...yes, yes, Renko, I get it...now would you please sit down, everyone's looking at you..."

Usami Renko, an eighteen-year-old girl in a black brimmed hat that sports a small white ribbon tie, necktie, cardigan, white dress shirt, and business skirt with pantyhose, nervously looks around her. Other customers in the Bukchangdo Soondubu Restaruant have turned in their seats to see what the commotion is about.

"Ah...s-sorry..." Renko mumbles as she sits back down in her seat. "Damn it, Merry, why'd you have to make a fool out of me?"

Her friend and companion, Maribel Hearn, a classmate and confidante of Renko's, sits across from her friend in a white frilled hat, peachy blouse, woolen jacket, and a skirt with thigh-high white socks and Mary Janes. "It was not my intention, but...you really do need to control yourself sometimes, Renko..."

"Hmph! Sorry for being so cheerful all the time! Maybe I should darken my soul gem a little bit for your liking, then!"

"Er, I never asked that...and besides, what is a soul ge-"

"Oh, they've brought the side dishes!"

A waitress rolls a steel cart loaded with Korean side dishes, including kimchi, vegetables, tofu, and pickled cabbage, along with two platters containing a single broiled fish.

"You know, I really like the fish here. I dunno about you, but, mmm, mmm!" Renko is unable to contain her own excitement as she digs into her fish.

"You shouldn't eat so fast, Renko, it is best to save your appetite for the main course, you know," Maribel says, concerned while she nibbles on some cold lettuce.

"Yeah, whatever, whatever. Anyways, wanna talk business, or...you still think it should wait?"

Maribel glances around her. "Shall I run the risk of scanning the area?"

"Can you detect any abnormal signatures around us?" Renko asks, notably lowering her voice with Maribel's.

"No."

"Then I say do it. In case we're caught, we can get the hell out and drag any possible conflict away from here."

"Very well. Scanning."

Maribel's strange purple eyes disappear as she closes them and reopens them. The purple pupils are replaced for golden ones that peer out as if illuminated underneath the lens of the eyes. Maribel looks around cautiously.

"...no artificial boundaries detected. It should be safe to talk. And speak in Japanese, just in case people overhear us."

Maribel shuts her eyes again, opening them to reveal her original purple eyes.

"Okay. Since you know the location of the next Beta Block drop in this city, we'll need to worry about who else might be there. We can't be the only ones after the thing in Los Angeles, of all cities. It's the biggest damn city on the West Coast, for God's sake."

"Indeed, we must assume there are others like us who will try to hunt the next Block. And considering the Block will drop at 9:24PM tonight...how should we approach this, with our current assumption?"

Renko takes a sip of her hot barley tea. "After we eat, we should go over to the place where the Block'll drop. Where is it, again?"

"I do not know, Renko, I told you. I just know where it will be. I am not familiar with this city, given your ability, Miss GPS." Maribel chews thoroughly and amusedly on her fish.

"Sigh...are we seriously gonna bash on each other's abilities now?" Renko slumps her arms over the black leather-bound book that she puts in front of her on the table, having already demolished her fish. "Fine, fine. You'll take us there. Then what?"

"I shall scan the area again to detect the presence of anyone also coming for the Block in a two mile radius. If the coast is clear, we will take it and exit this city immediately."

"What if we run into people there?"

"Because the Block is our main priority, we must try to combat them for possession of it. But we obviously will not kill ourselves over it."

"Dude, Merry, you know that Yumemi's not gonna be happy if we don't bring at least one back, right? We won't even know if another one's gonna drop in this city or not in a week."

"Then we must remember Okazaki-sensei's words. 'Failure is intolerable'."

Renko shudders. "You know that I think she's creepy as hell, right, Merry?"

"I am aware of that, yes. However, it is a necessary relationship we must keep if we are to prove our hypothesis that serenity is not a natural energy source." Maribel sips some of her own tea. "And I need not mention the visions that I have been seeing as of late."

Renko sits up again. "Yeah, I know. _Those _visions..."

"This will also prove to the world about the existence of a parallel world to our own, the world I have visited so often throughout my life. The world called Gensokyou."

"Huh. Wouldn't that be an absolute blast." Renko slumps on her book again, sighing. "All those years of trying to convince people that we aren't totally crazy'll be behind us then, eh? We'll prove all of these assholes that we were right in the end, and that they're all clueless idiots for not listening."

"Oh, our food is here," Maribel says, spotting another waitress rolling another cart towards them loaded with their main courses.

"Ohhhh, finally, I'm starving! Chopsticks, chopsticks..."

Renko and Maribel recite their usual cultural words of thanks before digging into their soondubu dishes and Korean barbequed short ribs and freshly steamed rice.

* * *

Nighttime. Losira's wristwatch reads 9:20pm.

"C'mon, you two. Let's go."

Losira, pulling tightly down on her fingerless gloves and readjusting her eyepatch properly, remotely shuts the vertical doors to her car, which is parked underneath a small and lonely bridge, with her keys and leads Reimu and Yukari, their pistol holsters on their waists on their jeans, underneath the bridge into a utility corridor.

"Remember, no shooting until we see any possible hostiles. We're here for the Block, nothing else. Leaving bodies behind in a city like this'll cause us unnecessary trouble," Losira warns as she opens an old rusty door that leads them up some stairs into a long and slightly narrow alleyway occupied by several smelly trash bags, small dumpsters, and a few garbage cans with several mice raiding them in hopes of finding something to eat or play with. The alleys are illuminated by dim streetlights that are in desperate need of maintenance and new lightbulbs.

"Where is the location of the Block?" Yukari asks, glancing around the alleyway for a feasible location.

"They told me it'd be down this way..." Losira mutters, scrolling down the screen of her Nexus with her thumb, reading the set of instructions that Lauren had sent her. "Just keep watching our six, you two."

As Reimu and Yukari watch their angles, Losira walks for a few minutes around the alleys of what seems to be a run-down apartment complex.

"What _is_ this place, anyway? It seems abandoned," Reimu comments, noting a few railing bars hanging awkwardly from a banister two stories above them.

"We're in some run-down apartments in West L.A.," Losira replies, still with her eyes on her phone. "The ghetto part of this city. Left."

Losira swings left into the final alleyway, in the middle of which a slight visual distortion can be seen only by people of magical or supernatural ability. "And here we are. It's about to drop in a minute or so, so just wait around."

The three girls walk over to the rift in the ground, blurring the cracked cement in a perfect circle. "This is how a Beta Block drops in, huh?" Reimu asks.

"Basically. It first marks its drop zone in this circle that normal people can't see so they don't hang around wondering what the hell's 'bout to happen. You'll see it actually drop in from the sky, it's pretty cool actually."

"Have you witnessed this event before?" Yukari asks, keeping a hand on her handgun in her holster at all times.

"Yeah, once before. I came a bit early to it, and it didn't look like anyone else knew about it droppin' in, so I just sat 'n watched it come down. Easiest Block get of my life." Losira mentions, leaning against the cracking, fading brick wall behind her. "Just chill 'til it gets here, I guess. Keep sharp, thou-"

Then, she cuts herself off immediately.

"Do you feel something, Losira?" Yukari asks sharply, although she herself is unable to sense anything just yet.

"...contacts. Two. One coming closer, one staying still. Don't know where they're coming from."

Reimu checks the alleys from which they had come. "None from our end, must be the other end of this alley."

"Probably." Losira pushes herself off the wall and stares hard down the alley and shouts out to the darkness. "Hey, I know you're there. We're both here for the same thing, aren't we? Stop bein' a bitch 'n come on out."

On cue, out of the darkness calmly walks first a pair of legs sporting neat heelless Mary Janes and black pantyhose, then a girl wearing a black brimmed hat that sports a small white ribbon tie, necktie, cardigan, white dress shirt, and business skirt. She holds a leather-bound book in her hand, attached to her belt with a thin chain.

"Your buddy, too. I know she's here somewhere. Where she at?" Losira approaches this girl, who stops some fifteen feet away from her and speaks in fluent English.

"You're here for the Beta Block, too?' The shadow of the girl's ribboned hat obscures her eyes from view.

"Why else would we be here? In any case, I'm gonna assume y'all ain't gonna leave unless we fuck ya up, so why don't we save some time 'n get it over with?" Losira cracks her knuckles.

Without warning, the black hatted girl swiftly raises her arms, and two magic runes with Japanese scripts quickly pops in front of her palms. Within a half a second, Usami Renko grabs hold of two chromed pistols - Beretta M96A1's with elongated barrels and undermounted laser sights. The pistol in her left hand has a black-painted body and handleskin and a white slide and grip, and the pistol in her right hand has the inverse color scheme. Both guns' barrels are engraved with the English words _The Ghostly Sealing Club_.

"Yeah, let's get it over with, then."


	7. AKS

**Just a quick author's note, I realized halfway into this chapter that all this time I was mispelling "Aventador". I apologize to any car fanatics out there who may be irritated with my constant misspelling of the name. I don't profess to be a car expert, unfortunately. **

**And after some thinking, I will be bringing back LLC - I haven't written for a month on the story, and it's about time I get started on it again. No other site provides the ease of writing as Fanfiction does, and even if this site hates me or my story, I have no other choice if I want to develop my story and bring it to an audience that will hopefully find it in themselves to enjoy it - somehow, in some way.**

* * *

"Yeah, let's get it over with, then."

Upon seeing her adversary's weapons, Losira immediately reacts, snapping out her dual Anaconda .357 Magnum revolvers so quickly that Renko is unable to bring up the sights of her own handguns. The two girls set their iron sights on one another and promptly open fire.

"Losira!" Reimu calls out shrilly as the narrow alleyways erupt with ear-piercing gunshot reports as she and Yukari instantly drop one knee to the ground and put up their own USP .45's at Losira's opponent, but Losira pays them no heed. Their first pairs of bullets meet exactly in midair, colliding and molding into each other in a flash of sparks as the metal fuse together. Even before the molded bullets hit the nearest surface, Losira and Renko readjust their aims and fire another volley. Five more flashes of bright deep-orange fires, five more ear-ripping cracks, and five more pairs of fused bullets crash to the ground. Losira and Renko, both with perfect, flawless aim, seem to be actively searching for their own opponent's projected trajectories and shoot each other's bullets straight out of the air. But Losira's revolvers, holding only a total of a dozen rounds as opposed to Renko's ample thirty, soon click empty, and Renko, hearing the feeble clicks in Losira's weapons, smiles deviously.

"Sucks for you, doesn't it?"

But before Renko can finish off the vulnerable Losira, Reimu and Yukari return fire right as Losira tosses aside her spent weapons and flattens herself against the ground to dodge her comrades' shots. Renko, caught off guard, is forced to outshoot Reimu's and Yukari's rounds as well, and Losira takes advantage of Renko's inability to shoot her and backs off to regroup with her friends and pull out her backup M1911 MEU to return fire as well. Soon, Renko, too, finds herself dry on ammunition, but not before everyone else find their weapons empty simultaneously, leaving all combatants glaring at each other awkwardly. Losira is the first to speak.

"Hey, hey, hey, hold up now. For you to know how to play Gun Game with me, you're not some rando off the streets, now, are you?" Losira's ornately decorated M1911 hisses gunpowder smoke from its muzzle, the slide drawn back to load another magazine.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Renko replies, keeping her eyes keenly on Losira. "What's the point of us talking when we both know this Beta Block can't go to two people at once?"

"Because I'm interested in you, more specifically, how you know Gun Game. I thought I knew everyone in the North American sector who knows how to Gun Game. I'd like to know where you learned to do that." Losira fluffs out her long, dark brown hair, but Renko simply continues to frown at her and suddenly flicks out her empty magazines and slams the butts of her M96A1's onto two gray white Japanese runes that pop up and spit out two fresh 9mm magazines. But before Renko throws the slides of her pistols forward to lock and load, Losira bends down and -

- disappears.

"Umph!" Renko grunts as Losira suddenly barges her into the wall at the other end of the alley, at the T-intersection from which Renko had emerged. The pair of M96A1's rattle and settle on the cracked cement, and Renko's black bowtie hat floats down to cover them. Losira pins Renko up against the wall and pulls her pocket knife on her, essentially pressing the flat end of the blade against her neck. Struggling to keep her eyes open, Renko peers into Losira's eyes - and sees a yin-yang in not only Losira's right eyepatched eye, but also in her left.

The yin-yang in Losira's left eye is bent 90 degrees clockwise, but it is slowly rotating back upright.

"Before I shove this thing up your asshole and through your mouth and gut you like those fuckin' hillbilly rednecks do down in central Kentucky, tell me what I want to know. Where did you learn Gun Game? I'm not gonna fuckin' ask again, bitch. Tell me. NOW."

Renko gasps noiselessly as the blade begins to dig into her skin, threatening to shave off the top layers of skin and poke into the muscle underneath, but she does not take her gaze off Losira.

"The same way - that you did. I don't see why - you see the need to - ask me."

Then, Losira, sensing imminent danger, kicks off the ground and back-dashes as hard as she can, and just as she does so, a tear in the air above where Losira was standing rips open like an oversized pair of jaws and chomps down like sickeningly warped teeth, gnashing horribly as Losira slides backwards to safety.

"Another accomplice, huh? Reimu, Yukari, keep sharp -"

But Yukari, seeing the tear, is conspicuously disturbed by the sight as she cries out, "Huh? ! Wait, you two, do not do anything, I repeat, stand down!"

"Yukari, what the hell are you talking about? They're trying to take the Block, we can't let 'em!" Reimu shouts back, not understanding why Yukari is suddenly behaving so strangely, but Yukari is already walking forward to Renko and the tear that quickly eats itself away from view.

"My, my. It is quite noisy out here, Renko. Why have we not secured this Beta Block already? We have not much time, you know." A low, polite, and dangerously and deceivingly soft voice precedes its owner: a short, blonde-haired girl just about the same height as Renko in a white frilled hat, peachy blouse, woolen jacket, and a skirt with thigh-high white socks and Mary Janes. "This is not the opposition that we had expected in a city of such magnitude. Why hesitate?"

But as soon as Maribel Hearn walks into view, she glances down the alley where Renko's adversaries are standing. Her purple eyes fall exactly on those of the first person she sees, Yakumo Yukari's.

Both women stop dead in their tracks, as if they cannot possibly believe the sights that their eyes are projecting into their senses.

Yukari is the first to break the head-pounding silence that had followed.

"...Merry?"

"...Okaa...san?"

For a blank moment, nobody speaks. Some in confusion, some in awe, and one in annoyed disconcern.

"MERRY!"

"OKAA-SAAAAAAN!"

Losira, Reimu, and Renko gawk as Maribel runs headlong straight into Yukari's open arms.

"Okaa-saaaan! It's you, isn't it? It is, right? Right?" Maribel, almost crying and stammering, buries and rubs her face into Yukari's supple bosom. Yukari, herself near tears as well, hugs Maribel tighter than she has ever remembered to hug in what seems to her a very, very long time, unable to find words to express her unexpected joy.

Reimu and Losira glance at each other, wordlessly asking one another if either of them knew what was going on, with neither being able to provide answers. Sighing exasperatedly, Losira opts instead to walk over to the two women, who are strikingly similar in appearance, and stand over them, hollering, "Okay, you two, this ain't a damn family reunion, we're all here on a job, I'm assumin', eh?" Seeing Renko approach them and put away her weapons into their runes, Losira also glances at her and asks, "Er, you know 'em, or...?"

Renko shakes her head, but mentions, "I might know who your friend is, but...I'd have to ask her. In any case, this is...certainly kinda surprising, I guess." She kneels down next to Maribel. "Merry! Hey, Merry! Are you listening to me? Hey! Heyyyy! ! !"

As Renko tries to get Maribel's attention, Reimu whispers to Losira. "That girl called Maribel...she's constantly calling Yukari 'Okaa-san'. I never knew Yukari was a mother...she never mentioned having any children, besides referring to her shikigami as them."

"Well, if you didn't know, hell if I know either."

It takes a few minutes to calm them down enough to explain as the Beta Block, in the meantime having finally dropped and floating in its strange but serene energy signature, hovers near them.

"Yukari Okaa-san is my mother. It is kind of redundant, but nevertheless," Maribel explains. "She -"

"Haaaaaaaah? ! You never told me that you knew your mom! ! ! !" Renko grabs hold of Maribel and shakes her back and forth.

"B-But Renko, Renko, you - you met her before, remember? ! A really, really long time agooOoOooOoo -" Maribel's voice sways back and forth with her shaking.

"Do I?" Renko looks up at Yukari, who is kneeling in seiza with her newfound daughter, Maribel. "Well, you're a bit familiar, but not enough to make me remember."

Yukari smiles slightly and holds out her hand. "Perhaps I can help you remember. Take my hand."

"Er..." Renko hesitates but takes it anyway. As soon as their hands touch, Renko's eyes open wide. "Ohhhhh! Yeah, okay, I know now! When we were just toddlers, right? In Tokyo?"

Yukari nods, chuckling as Reimu raps on Yukari's head. "Oi, oi, Yukari, when'd you run off and have a kid? Isn't she, like, my age?"

"As a matter of fact, she is exactly the same age as you and Losira," Yukari replies. "Renko-chan too, if my understanding is correct."

Losira butts in, cutting off their conversation. "Uh, I'd rather not be a dick and break up a family reunion here, but we gotta get the fuck outta here before other Beta Testers barge in on our lil' party here." Losira looks up at Renko. "Either of ya got a ride?"

"Not really, no. We came by b-"

"Oh, and Yukari said your name is Renko. You all speak Japanese?"

"Er, yeah, we all do, including Merry."

"Good, let's talk in Jap so we can reduce the chances of us gettin' eavesdropped on. We need to grab this shit 'n get the fuck out, jus' sayin'. I got a ride for us, so I'll take us back to my place. It'll be an hour drive, though."

"The hell?" Renko stands back up, facing Losira angrily. "We just fought over this Beta Block, and now you're acting all friendly and crap? I ain't buying that! We came here for that Block, and we aren't leaving without it!"

"Nobody said you're leaving without the damn thing, 'cause we'll be taking it with us. And for the record, we'd like it too, since I've got a use for it myself," Losira responds curtly and straightforwardly. "Besides, it sure as fuck doesn't seem like there's a reason for us to fight now, is there? With your friend 'n Yukari bein' all smoochy smoochy 'n all."

Losira reaches over and takes the floating Beta Block carefully, carrying it over to Renko. "Here - you carry it on our way back, so you can keep an eye on it. That fair now?"

Renko takes the jewel from Losira and pockets it securely. "Merry, we should just ditch them here and go back. We got what we came for-"

Losira pulls her Colt M1911 MEU on Renko, shoving the muzzle point blank at the side of her head. "I give you the thing for safekeepin', and that's how you're gonna see the situation? Should I say 'fuck you then' and Scarface you right now?"

Renko snickers. "With Merry here, I doubt you can do much of anything, really," she says snugly as Maribel glares at Losira, her left hand raised and focused directly on Losira. "You don't even know what she's capable of, and I'd prefer it to be that way, since she can do a lot more to you than you can to me with just a gun. So I suggest you put that crap away before Merry gouges out your brain or something."

Losira swivels her eyes onto Merry without moving her neck, splitting her attention between her two would-be opponents. Merry whispers fiercely, "Please do as she says. I prefer not to resort to killing if I mustn't." Sighing, Losira obliges, flicking the safety on her gun again and stowing it in her holster inside her business jacket.

"Yukari, as much as I hate ta say it, yer the one callin' the shots among us. Waddya wanna do?"

"Eh? Why me? I am not familiar with this -"

"As in, you and...Merry, was it?"

"Maribel," Maribel corrects.

"Right. You and Maribel are obviously meshin' us together, otherwise one of our little groups here'd be dead already. Since I work with you and not them, I'm givin' you the call here."

Yukari thinks for second. "Well, I do not see a problem with returning to your home for the night. It is rather late, after all, and I would like a night to speak with my daughter."

"Then it's settled. Let's get a move on th-"

Renko cuts off Losira. "Wait, Merry! Are you sure about this? And Yukari-san, do you trust these people? Why were you with them to begin with?"

Yukari chuckles again. "A story's worth to tell, I am afraid. It is more complicated than it looks, I assure you. But they are trustworthy."

Sighing in almost an uncannily similar manner to Losira, Renko readjusts her hat and pulls out her guns to check that they are fully loaded. "Fine, fine. We'll stay at your place for the time being, then. But don't get the idea that we're gonna get all nice and comfy while we're there."

Losira just snickers back at Renko. "I sure as hell hope you don't. I'd rather keep my tea and cake for myself. I know how 'em Englishwomen like their fine ol' tea 'n crumpets, eh?"

"Hey, for the record, I only visited England, not actually lived there."

Yukari and Maribel get up so that the group can start heading back to Losira's car. However, just as they begin to follow Losira, who is beginning to backtrack their route, she halts and raises a hand, continuing to speak in sharp and perfect Japanese.

"Hold up. I'm feelin' other people comin' down here. Y'all feel 'em, too?"

They remain quiet for a few moments to confirm Losira's detection.

"Yeah, they're coming, all right," Reimu mutters, cocking back the slide of her handgun. "What's the plan now, then?"

"They are mere humans. It should not be very difficult to defeat them," Maribel states calmly, staying close to her mother.

"Nah, don't engage 'em. Let's try to sneak around 'em as best we can, don't wanna get caught out here in a motherfuckin' shootout," Losira commands as she motions to the others to follow. They begin running back from whence Losira and co. had come.

"Detecting many more foreign signatures," Yukari alerts. "It seems an entire faction has descended upon us."

"Some of the local gangs here've caught on to the Beta Block trades," Losira replies, leading the way. "Sometimes they end up battlin' over those things, like tonight. Didn't expect them to find this one, though. Still, they should realize that they've got other people to deal with besides us, so we can use 'em as cover to GTFO."

"What's GTFO?" Renko asks, running close by Reimu.

"Get the fuck out," Losira replies in a very deadpan fashion. Soon, they find themselves in the utility corridor that they had taken from Losira's car, but Losira throws out her arm and puts her finger over her lips.

"Couple dickwads near my ride. Keep your voices low and stay low. We'll catch 'em by surprise since they're all broke-ass dipshits who can only dream of even seeing a Lamborghini." The girls, crouching and pinning themselves against the wall opposite the door to the utility corridor, slowly inch over to the end of the corridor, where Losira begins to peek out before Renko pulls her back.

"Don't do that. Let Merry check," she warns. Losira, not knowing what Renko means, watches as Maribel extends hand out in front of her and traces a tear with her finger. It promptly opens, and the small tear that Maribel has produced provides a point of view of the underside of the bridge looking down at four men in shady loose clothing and hoods or caps.

"How much ya think shit like dis goes for?" one of the gangsters asks. "Fuckin' 'a if I know how dogshit lucky we are ta run inta dis shit."

"Easy, four mil," says another gangster, unable to help himself as he chuckles like a fat businessman counting a thick wad of bills. "Whoeva left dis ride unda here's a pretty generous dude, bro. He even maintained dis shit sommin' _fierce_. Y'all see dat shit? I can't even tell how da fuck long it's been kept, dat's how good dey took care 'a dis shit."

"Fuck dude, I'd ratha keep dis mothafucka. No lie, if dis shit's a hoe, dawg, I ain't neva leavin' whateva strip club I found 'er at," another gangster hoots.

"So y'all know how ta jack a Lamborghini, den?" the last gangster asks. "It's a fuckin'...actually, hold up, I ain't neva seen dis kinna Aventador before, da shit dey do to dis thang?"

"Waddya mean?"

"I'm sayin', mothafucka, dis shit's a four-seata, nigga. All da Aventadors I eva heard of ain't nothin' but two-seata's. Da fuck dis one doin' wit four seats, huh?"

"Yeah, yer right, I ain't even seen dat shit. Nigga's got a good eye, dat one."

"So dat means, since dis ain't even a factory model, we kin sell dis shit fer more 'n four mil?"

"We gotta, my nigga. Lamborghini ain't exactly da chauffeur company ta walk up to 'n ask fer a custom made, y'know wat I'm sayin'? Aint no fuckin' Lamborghini customs shop 'round these broke-ass parts fer a reason, ya hear? I thinkin' dis gonna net us some eight mil. Hell, we sell it off right, we kin even get fuckin' twelve mil fer all I know."

"Well, who gonna start, den? We ain't got all day, I gotta go back 'n get fuckin' bonged up with mah niggas back in the hood."

"Fine, fine, ya fuckin' pussies, go suck all yer dads' dicks while I fuckin' hotwire dis shit. Jaaaaay-zus fuckin' Christ almighty, my niggas, who y'all callin' car repo experts if y'all jus' know how ta appraise dis mothafucka 'n not even know how ta repo it? Y'all crazy, niggas."

Losira, by this point very annoyed by their conversation, does not bother to change ammunition types as she gets up, rounds the corner with her M1911 ready to unholster, and approaches the four gangsters, despite her accomplices' calls of restraint. "And exactly _whose_ car y'all gonna repossess, motherfuckers?"

The gangsters, having not noticed her entrance at all, immediately stop what they are doing, staring at her and not knowing what to do next. "Erm...evenin', ma'am, f-fine night out tonight, eh?" one of them stammers hastily.

"I asked a goddamn question, you worthless pieces of shit, what's this fucking repo job y'all were talkin' 'bout, huh?" Losira continues walking towards them. "It can't be _that car right there now_, can it?"

The two closest gangsters to Losira approach her as well. "Worthless pieces 'a shit? Hey, c'mon now, gal, yo momma ain't taughtcha ta talk dat way, did she?"

"At least my momma taught me not ta call cars like that 'shit' over 'n over, dipshits," Losira spits nastily at them. "And that car happens to be mine, so y'all can jus' fuck off."

One of the gangsters walking to her bursts out in extremely sarcastic laughter, intentionally faking his hoots. "Ohhhh, dat hurt, ya dirty bitch! Y'know, dey teach ya dat one sayin', don't dey? In school or whereva? 'Sticks 'n stones kin break mah bones, but words'll neva hurt me' or some shit like dat? Well guess wat, hoe! Dat ain't true! 'cuz ya jus' hurt my feelin's real deep there! I ain't got a clue wutcher problem is, but we out here try'na make some dolla bills, y'hear? Some 'a dat cash money, y'know? So if we see a fuckin' Lamborghini jus' sittin' real nice 'n pretty out in da moonlight like we're on fuckin' acid when we're actually not, 'a coooooooooourse we gonna take dat monaaaaaaaaaaay!" He and Losira are only meters away from one another. "And unfortunately, we da po-leece 'round here, 'n we gotta give ya a parkin' violation ticket, y'know? We da towin' business, y'know? So we jus' gotta do our job, so we kin earn dat cash monaaaaaa-"

Losira drives her left fist into the gangster's stomach and grinds it against his body clockwise before raising her left arm and smashing the bottom of her fist against his head and knocking him far off to the side away from her. The other gangsters, seeing her violent actions, then snap to action and rush at her. One of them pulls out a Glock, but Losira reacts too fast for any of them, pulling out her M1911 and quickly and accurately flinging a bullet to knock the Glock out of the gangster's hand. The loud crack of the pistol stops the three remaining gangsters dead short when they realize to their horror that the girl they are facing is armed.

"I'll give you fuckers somethin' to appraise," Losira growls as she squeezes the trigger three more times, the rubber bullets that were loaded into her gun being spit out and punching her victims excruciatingly in various body parts. As the gangsters fall screaming, Losira beckons to the others to come out, and they rush to the car as Losira unlocks the doors and raises them. As they all pile in, Renko, Yukari, and Maribel in the back and Reimu sitting shotgun as usual, Losira turns and unloads the rest of her clip into the nearest man. It is difficult to tell whether the reports of the gun are truly louder than the man's screams of sustained agony.

"Call my car shit again and I'll bring a fuckin' machine gun next time around," Losira hisses as she drops her empty magazine with the littered pile of bullet casings and swings her legs into the driver's seat, revving up the engine and roaring away from the bridge underpass. Within minutes, the Aventador is safely riding the comfortable flow of traffic of the streets of Los Angeles, and Losira then readjusts her rearview mirror to look at her passengers in the back.

"First things first, intros. Since we probably don't have a reason to blow each others' heads off, we may as well sit down 'n get comfy at least a little. You can call me Losira. Pronounce it Lo-sear-a, or Lo-sai-ra, I don't really give a fuck, since no one else has a name quite like mine. This is Reimu, Hakurei Reimu. She came to this world from Gensokyou with Yukari, 'n I picked 'em up the other night to help 'em out a bit. I'm assuming you know Yukari, which is probably the biggest understatement of my entire goddamn Beta Testing career. Your turn."

Maribel speaks up first. "My name is Maribel Hearn. Like you have already seen, I am Yukari-okaa-san's biological daughter. We have not seen each other in...nnn, Okaa-san, how long has it been?"

"Oh dear...since your father passed away...so I believe some fifteen years," Yukari replies, digging through her memory. "In other words, too long."

"Yukari, you need to explain yourself. What the hell were you doing back then, running around and having children?" Reimu turns in her seat to look back at Yukari. "That's so not like you, you know that, right?"

Yukari sighs. "It is a long story, Reimu. I will try my best to elaborate once we arrive back at Losira's home."

"Tch. It better be a long story, damn it." Reimu snorts incredulously and sarcastically and sits back in her seat, crossing her arms.

"A-Anyway, I am Yukari-Okaa-san's daughter, and this is my best friend, Usami Renko. She is my classmate and research partner, and we have made a club called the Sealing Club back in high school but continued it between the two of us anyway after we graduated. We are both currently students at the University of Tokyo."

"That's cool." Losira pulls onto the freeway, and the engine of her sports car rumbles, then screams as they immediately begin to outstrip other cars around them. "By the way, if yer name's Maribel, why do Renko and Yukari both call you Mary?"

"Merry, with an 'e'," Maribel corrects. "Erm...well...Okaa-san first started calling me it, then Renko, who has been my lifelong friend, picked up on it too, since when we were young, it was hard for her to pronounce my full name." She turns to her mother. "Okaa-san, why _did_ you start calling me Merry? I've always wanted to ask."

"You were born on the day that this world calls 'Christmas'. Your father had named you 'Maribel', and for fun, I called you 'Merry'."

"Wait, then who's Maribel's dad?" Reimu blurts out. "Why haven't you even mentioned to me that you had a husband, Yukari? Seriously, what the heck!"

Yukari chuckles, very amused at the fact that Reimu seems to be unable to get over the fact that Yukari had a child. "When we get home, I shall explain. I need not repeat, no?" Yukari takes hold of Maribel's hand gently. "I am becoming a bit sleepy, so I shall rest for the journey."

"You haven't changed at all, Okaa-san," Maribel giggles, leaning up against Yukari's right shoulder.

Renko, seeing this, purses her lips enviously and grabs hold of her friend's right arm, as Maribel is sitting in the middle between her mother and her friend. "Don't be forgetting about _me_, too," Renko whispers, half bashfully and half bitterly.

"Can I grab another one of those candies?" Reimu asks as Losira busies herself with the stereo and nods at Reimu's request. As Reimu selects a strawberry Jolly Rancher and unwraps it to enjoy the treat within, Losira increases the volume to some soothing, calm jazz, the quiet, lullaby-like drums and cooing trumpets drowning out the roar of the engine as it drives down the freeway back home.

* * *

"It's weird havin' ta say this to two people who jus' attacked us, but make yerselves at home," Losira calls out as her posse enters her home's living room and dining room out of the garage. "Sit wherever y'all want, I'll bring some snack - wait, have any of us even eaten dinner yet?"

All of the girls shake their heads.

"Damn, can't believe I've forgotten we didn't even eat yet. Lemme see if I have anything in my fridge, I really need to go shoppin' soon..."

Muttering her way to the kitchen, Losira begins rummaging through the fridge in search of things to fix up for a late dinner as the rest of the girls wander over to the living room. Renko and Maribel, upon seeing the plush couches there, squeal and tumble onto them, relishing in the couches' heavenly soft sensation.

"Hehehe, Renko, do you remember when we were younger, when we used to do this all the time?" Maribel asks, arching her neck to look at her friend, who is snuggling with her couch's pillow and simply nods at Maribel's statement. A few minutes later, the kitchen doors squeak shut, and Losira walks into the living room with a platter of hot brownies, ham and cheese sandwiches, and five white teacups with a pitcher of grape juice.

"Sorry for this, I'd take the time to make a half-decent meal if I had ingredients," Losira apologizes as she sets down the platter on the carpet and sits down with Reimu. "Plus, I'd serve tea, too, but...as it turns out, I ain't got any teabags, either...fuck me..." Cursing herself for her negligence of acquiring tea, she snatches up a sandwich half and chomps on it.

"Itadakimasu~" Variations of the thanks for food sing out as the girls eat their simple supper.

"So...obviously, since it turns out we were after the same Beta Block, who're you workin' for? And, by the way, Renko, you ain't answered me yet 'bout the whole Gun Game thing," Losira points her middle finger at Renko while chewing. "Not everyday at all I run into others who know how to play it."

Renko glares again at Losira, lowering her sandwich. "I hope you realize that you can't possibly expect me to just tell you just because you asked me to?" she retorts. "Like, seriously, what the hell? Would you tell me who _you're_ working for?"

"Why not?" Losira calmly responds, biting into her sandwich and tearing out a particularly big chunk and quickly consuming it. "I'd tell you, but that's just me."

Renko narrows her eyes at Losira. "But why? We barely know each other, yet you think you can just say that so easily?"

"Like I said, why not? Doesn't matter if we barely know each other, I can already tell you and your friend are real powerful 'n shit. If possible, I'd rather not get on your bad side. Plus, I'm pretty sure you're not people who'll use the Blocks for malicious intent."

Reimu scoffs. "Malicious intent? Wasn't it you who just straight up beat the crap out of those guys when we went back to the car?" she comments, half amusedly.

"I don't expect someone who's lived their entire life in a completely different world to understand how much I value my car," Losira snaps at Reimu. "I couldn't care less if they called me a dirty ass slut, but I worked my ass off for that car, and I certainly didn't buy it jus' for a couple gangbangers to call it shit every two and a half seconds. So I kindly suggest you to shut the fuck up."

"...the fuck's your problem?" Reimu, taken back by Losira's sudden verbal lash-out when she thought her comment to be only playful, wonders aloud, but Losira ignores her and turns to Renko again. "So? What'll it be? And for the record, I'll have ya know that I ain't plannin' ta let either of you leave my house until you've told me."

Both Maribel and Renko tense up at Losira's words. "I see how it is, then. I hope you don't mind if we punch more than just a few holes in your walls, 'k?" Renko responds in kind.

"Although we may be comrades, Losira, I ask that you do not threaten these girls," Yukari interjects sternly. "That is something I cannot overlook, given what you have shown for your capabilities."

"Then hurry up and fuckin' answer me, Renko," Losira pressures. "I keep havin' ta say this shit over 'n over, but I hate repeating shit. Why are you after this Block? Who sent you?"

A tense silence, broken soon by Renko. "Let us keep this Block, and I'll tell you. Deal or bust."

Losira's face contorts slightly in disgust. "Are you fuckin' kidding me...am I in the fuckin' U.N. again or some shit?"

"Are you sure about this, Renko?" Maribel says in concern to her friend, but Yukari speaks again.

"I would wish to know as well, Merry. After all, it would be nice to know what you and Renko have been up to during my absence."

Maribel squirms in her seat on the couch next to Yukari uncomfortably from the added pressure from her mother. Renko continues to glare hard at Losira, who, frustrated, finally relents.

"Fine, goddamn it, keep it. Now hurry up 'n spit out what I wanna know. Fuck, gonna hafta text Lauren again 'n have 'er look for another one..."

Losira pulls out her Nexus and begins texting Lauren as Renko pulls out the Beta Block to make sure it is safely in her hands and pockets it inside her coat again. "Merry mentioned that we're part of the Ghostly Sealing Club. Well, we're not the only ones in it. We've teamed up with one of our professors and her assistant at our university when this Beta Block business first started happening. She's funded our trip here to America so we can find as many Beta Blocks as we can, since it's pretty difficult to get our hands on them in Japan. Too many research parties in such a confined area that there're too many Beta Testers running around to hunt for the jewels in relative safety."

Losira rubs her eyebrows. "Okay...but...that's not telling me much. I want names, I want areas, I want plans. I'm not asking for the specific details here."

"Stop trying to rush me, and maybe I will tell you, geez," Renko snaps at Losira. "The professor, whom we have given charge of the club in terms of management and leadership, is Okazaki Yumemi. She's -"

Losira cuts her off. "Okazaki? _The _Okazaki?" she asks, her eyes widening in piqued interest.

"Er...what do you mean, _the_ Okazaki? There's only one that we know of..."

"The engineering professor! Is she the one you're talkin' about?"

"One of the best at Todai, at that," Renko confirms. "She's our age too, so it was only natural for us to have her help lead us, since she's super freaking smart and all."

"Her assistant goes by the name of Kitashirakawa Chiyuri. She is...rather strange, but she is almost equally as brilliant as Okazaki-sensei," Maribel adds. "She is helping to lead our directives here in America. You sound as if you know of Okazaki-sensei, Losira-san."

Losira shoves the rest of her sandwich into her mouth, almost swallowing it whole. "Damn straight I know her! My team and I did a collab with her back in the day. We cut comms with each other afterwards to prevent our pursuers from trackin' us both. That was like, fuck, two, two and half years ago 'r somethin'? It was when this Beta Block traffickin' was first startin' up."

Maribel's ears twitch slightly at Losira's words. "Collab..." She quickly turns to Renko. "Renko, correct me if I am wrong, but...didn't Okazaki-sensei mutter stuff about a collaboration sometimes?"

"Come to think of it, yeah, she did. So you're the one who Yumemi keeps muttering on about, huh?"

"Yeah, 'n she owes us fuckin' big time. We were the ones who let her know about the other side of our world, the side that has magic 'n shit that science hasn't gotten a slice of a chance to explain jus' yet." Losira noms on a brownie, reaching over to Reimu's hair and picking up some strands to play with.

"O-Oi, Losira, stop that, don't touch my hair," Reimu urges as she tries to swipe away Losira's hand, but instead, Losira swiftly removes the hairband that holds up Reimu's hair in a neat, elegant ponytail, causing her hair to drape down like her own.

"You don't have a problem now, do you? Now shut up 'n lemme do what I want." Losira is content with rolling a few of Reimu's long hairs in between her fingers. Reimu, unable to decide how to react to Losira's very strange demand, continues to eat her sandwich, not exactly sure what to feel about a girl playing with her hair. "Anyways, how far's she gone with her research? The last thing we heard from 'er was that she was fuckin' obsessed with the Beta Blocks from that point onward."

"She still is," Renko mutters, almost miserably. "It's almost all she ever talks about, claiming that it'll revolutionize the world in ways we humans would never imagine. Honestly, I wish she'd shut up about it for a change, but...technically, she's our club advisor, so I would never actually say that."

"I see, I see," Losira nods, reaching for another brownie. "Good to know she's still around. She was a good work partner, so it's nice to hear from her again, I suppose."

Renko sips some grape juice but does not take off her gaze from Losira. "This's been on my mind ever since we met back in the city, but...care to explain your power?"

Losira, about to take a delicious bite of her chocolate goodie, halts her hand mid-transit. "My power? Why do you wanna know?"

"Because I've never seen that power before. That wasn't magic energy you used, was it? What kind of trick is it?"

"I would like to know as well, Losira," Yukari states in a rather quiet voice. Losira notices that Yukari, too, is stroking Maribel's hatless, short blonde hair the exact same shade of straw-yellow as her own. "It seemed to be a sort of teleportation technique of some kind, but I was unable to identify its stature. Do elaborate."

Losira scratches her own head, annoyed at the fact that she is disparaging too much of her own personal information. "I'd much rather keep it a secret, y'know."

"I insist," Renko persists.

"Hey, dude, you wouldn't want me askin' where you got your magic abilities from either, would you? Those aren't natural, innate magic runes that magicians make. And I've never seen anyone use 'em fer weapon storage, to boot."

"How about we both tell each other, then? It's not like we'll have a reason to fight in the future, hopefully, so where's the harm in that?"

"Because I don't trust any of you, to be quite frank," Losira stoutly states in a very cold voice. "Just because I invite you to spend the night here at my place 'n feed you dinner, even if it's a crappy one, doesn't mean we're automatically BFF's, y'know. Hope you realize that."

"Yeah, I do, but it's nice to get to know each other. Nothing bad can come out of making a few more friends and getting to know them, right?"

"Since when were we friends?"

"Ever since you gave me the Beta Block."

Losira facepalms. "God fucking damn it...never should've given it to you..." Groaning, Losira relinquishes Reimu's hair, takes off her business jacket, and throws it off to the side onto the staircase railings. "Fine, fine...you better damn well tell me where you got your powers, too. I get this feelin' this ain't the last time we're gonna be workin' together..."

"I certainly hope not," Yukari chuckles. "After being in no contact with Merry, it would be very nice if we were to remain together, I will not lie."

"Oh, and you explain yourself, too," both Reimu and Losira recite simultaneously, and Losira clears her throat.

"Sigh...okay, so. I can't show it to you now, 'cause I actually have to use my ability in order to show you, which isn't somethin' I wanna do if I don't absolutely need to." She taps her eyepatch. "See the yin-yang? This isn't just a decoration. My left eye has one of them, too, imprinted into the iris. It pops up if I use my ability, which I all 'Click'."

"Click?" Reimu asks, starting to take interest. Renko leans in to get a better look at Losira's eyepatch.

"So check it out, right? Click is the term I use to describe my ability, which is basically short-range, instant teleportation. But it's not a conventional teleportation, y'know? When people think of teleportation, they think of an ability that allows someone ta go from point A to point B, take their bodies and physically move them instantly to their destination. Agree, or no?"

"That's the standard definition, isn't it?" Renko asks. "So how's yours different? Yukari-san said herself that she didn't even know what yours was."

"Mine's different. What you saw back in L.A. is a kind of teleportation that, honestly, shouldn't even be considered teleportation. It's more like transplantation, if anything."

Maribel sets down her teacup. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saaaaaaaaaying, that Click doesn't physically move me instantly from one place to another. It's never physical. Instead, it removes my existence from my current location and reconstructs it in a given set of coordinates that I paint to complete the transplantation."

A short silence ensues as the girls take a moment to wrap their minds around the concept.

"But would that not have consequential implications about the integrity of your existence, Losira? That would put your existence at a severe risk of possibly becoming degraded, no?" Yukari asks, visibly concerned.

"Nah, I ain't gotta worry 'bout that. Never did, never will. But it's a simple ability, really, in the end. I just tell myself I need to go here, and boom, I'm there."

Losira taps her eyepatch again. "But it's got a very defined usage restriction. Renko, did you look at my eye when I pushed you against the wall?"

Renko nods. "Your eye was turned, wasn't it? Like ninety degrees to the right or something?"

"Exactly. Every time I Click, my left eye becomes a countdown timer in yin-yang form. My pupil turns ninety degrees every time I Click, and it has a five-second cooldown before it starts turning back to normal. If I Click more than four times in a row without letting it cool down, the yin-yang on my eyepatch will start turnin'."

"Huh? But isn't this just some embroidering?" Reimu wonders, reaching over to Losira's eyepatch, but Losira grabs her hand suddenly.

"I'd rather people not touch it, sorry. It...actually bothers me a lot." Unlike the usual sarcasm that is generally present in Losira's voice, an eerie urgency replaces it, and Reimu, noticing this immediately, obliges without a word. "Anyway, the yin-yang on my eyepatch behaves the same way, even if it looks like it's not part of my power, 'cause it is. It turns the opposite way, though, but it turns four times, too."

"What happens when you try to use it more than eight times?" Maribel asks.

Losira bites her lip. "Bad, bad things."

"Can you even activate it more than eight times, then?" Reimu asks this time.

"I can. But the only reason I would is if it's to prevent me from dying."

"What happens if you do go over your limit?"

Losira remains silent for a minute. "Like I said, bad, bad things."

"...erm, well, can't you at least tell us what happens?"

"Problem is I don't know if I _should_ tell you. The affects are different each time. And they get worse each time. Like, as in, my left ankle got dislocated instantly when I Clicked nine times once."

A harsh silence again. "...er..._instantly_...?" Renko repeats, as if to reaffirm Losira's statement.

"Yeah. When I Clicked that ninth time, after I Clicked, I found my left ankle completely busted and bent the wrong way." Losira shudders, her usual calm, cool demeanor being invaded by an insecure, uncomfortable one. "That shit hurt. It fuckin' hurt like a bitch. I never wanna feel that again. So do me a favor 'n don't ask me that shit again." Losira points at Renko. "Your turn."

"Fine...unlike you, I'm not a total complete asshole, so I'll bite," Renko says. "I, uh, actually don't really have any 'magical' powers, by technicality. I only have a manipulation power that I was born with. It's just the ability to read stars for time and the moon for location."

"I call her Miss GPS sometimes to tease her," Maribel explains, giggling much to Renko's chagrin. "She seems to be annoyed by it."

Losira cocks her head a little, very interested in the description of Renko's ability. "A walking GPS, huh? That's not a power you see every day, is it. So it's like you can never get lost, huh?"

"Nope. Never got lost in my life."

"Then how do you get time and location during the day? Does your power work the same, or what happens?"

"Well, obviously since I can't see the stars or moon during the day, my power doesn't work well at all. I'd just have to rely on standard ways of telling time and location...but I can still get time and location, it just takes a lot, lot, lot longer than if I were to do it at night."

"Mkay...then what about your guns? You said you're not an innate magic user. How'dja get hold 'a those runes, then?"

"Courtesy of Yumemi. She gave me those runes you saw by inscribing magic into this book that I keep with me all the time. It lets me store my weapons safely and take them with me anywhere. It even stores ammo and other stuff for me, too, if I want it to."

Losira taps her fingers together in thought, her elbows on her knees. "In that case...can you bring up those runes for sec? There's somethin' I wanna see."

"Why?"

"If I'm thinkin' this correctly, I'm thinkin' Yumemi took some of the energy of the Beta Block we got for 'er 'n turned it into a usable form of magic for non-magic users to utilize. Now hurry up with it, we ain't got all night."

Renko curls her lip, unwilling to obey Losira's order, but obliges anyway, extending a hand at Losira and opening a small palm-sized rune for Losira to analyze.

"...yeah, this's definitely serenity energy right here. But this is hella cool, Yumemi's actually managed ta find a way to develop an actually usable interface for non-magic users to use, holy shit. Plus, she even localized it to the Japanese timezone 'n customs 'n shit."

"Well, she _is_ considered to be a genius at Todai, after all," Maribel remarks.

"How _are_ you able to read that, anyway?" Reimu asks Losira. "I haven't seen you use magic once this whole time."

"I can still work with Beta Blocks, can't I?" Losira responds, nodding as Renko deconstructs her magic rune. "That should be proof enough. Oh, and, there any chance I can look at your pistols?"

"No, no there isn't. They're keepsakes, given to me by someone very special to me." Renko refuses Losira abruptly.

"It's either that, or you tell me where you learned Gun Game. Simple as that."

"Then that's easy. As long as I don't let you touch my guns, I already saw what you could do with those revolvers of yours, of all things," Renko accepts, quite relieved at Losira's exchange.

"It ain't like I'm gonna wreck 'em or anything. I know what it feels like ownin' a gun that feels important to ya. I have one myself," Losira explains as she reveals her own precious sidearm. "I'm jus' interested in who made 'em. They looked like they've been well made, that's all."

"Yeah, I'm _sure_ that's all you wanted," Renko scoffs. "Anyways, Gun Game...I was taught by Yumemi, and I only just managed to get it down just a few months ago. I'm still new to this, but don't think I'll hesitate to shoot to kill, because I will. I'm not working out here to die or let Merry die."

"Holy fuck, Yumemi still knows Gun Game? Does she still have her six shooters?" Losira asks.

"Six shooters? You mean her Magnums? Yeah, she still has those. She has them up in a glass display in her office," Renko comments in a rather awkward tone. "Like, why she would see the need to show those in her office for everyone who walks in there to see's beyond me, honestly."

"Oh, by the way, Losira-san, you never told us your own group," Maribel points out.

"My own group? Waddya mean?"

"When Renko mentioned Okazaki-sensei, you also mentioned that you and your organization had worked with her in the past. You could at least show us the decency of telling us the name of this organization that you associate with."

"Does the name Seal Team 6 ring any bells?" Losira mumbles, annoyed further that she has to provide more personal information. "I swear...maybe I shouldn'ta brought y'all here..."

But Maribel claps her hands together, as if in epiphany. "Seal Team 6? Okazaki-sensei holds them in utmost regard for being the best research team that is working with the Beta Blocks! Would it be possible for them to visit Okazaki-sensei or contact her? I am sure she would be very glad to hear from them again!"

"Wait, 'n how do _you_ know how closely we worked together back then?" Losira asks incredulously. "We even made Yumemi swear she wouldn't tell anyone, otherwise we'd put a kill order on her ass 'n take her out."_  
_

"Er, you don't have to worry about that, Yumemi hasn't exactly blabbed on about that to just anyone," Renko interrupts worriedly. "She only shared this with our little club, just me, Merry, and Chiyuri."

"...well, if that's really the case, guess it's fine, then, for now," Losira sighs. "Really, though, she shouldn'ta told y'all anyway. Lemme ask, though, how many Blocks y'all've gotten, though? When'd y'all get together in that Sealing Club thing 'a yers?"

"We first came together at the beginning of this school year," Maribel says. "Okazaki-sensei called us out to her office one day because she sensed that we were abnormal humans with potentials to develop powers relatively quickly and easily with the presence of the Beta Blocks. We are not sure about the details, but it seems that Okazaki-sensei and Chiyuri-chan have acquired a fair stock of Beta Blocks by themselves."

"Then I'm assumin' she made you two hold onto some Beta Blocks until y'all developed your powers, huh?" Losira asks, and both Maribel and Renko nod. "Thought so. No doubt that Yumemi's been contactin' 'round 'n gettin' 'er hands on our works, given she really does look up to us as the best serenity research group. She based that procedure off one of our own experiments we did back in the day when we first started workin' on serenity 'n the Blocks 'n shit. Lemme go wash my hands real quick..."

The dialogue pauses for a few moments as Losira gets up and walks a few paces around the corner to enter the nearby restroom, and as the hum of the restroom ceiling fan whirs, Reimu pops a small brownie cube into her mouth and finally asks: "Mkay, Yukari. It's your turn now - You and Maribel there. Explain."

As Maribel chuckles awkwardly, Yukari clears her throat. "Well...Around the time that you were born, Reimu, I had left for the outside world on some business to acquire some wares for Kourindou. While I was roaming Tokyo, I met Merry's father, Lafcadio Hearn, who was a foreign language professor for Todai. He took a...rather infatuated interest in me during my time in Tokyo when I went to the university to visit. At first, naturally, I did not understand his eclecticism, as he was a very quirky and eccentric man. But eventually I learned of his life and his hardships, especially his inability to see out of his left eye, and I must admit that eventually, I grew to admire him as a human, and as much as he was persistent, I cannot deny that his dedication for me was inhuman, to say the least. But I was, nevertheless, quite surprised when he declared his love for me before I departed for Gensokyou and begged me to stay one last night. You can imagine what happened then."

"What the hell? That sounds like a really lame love story, you do know that, right?" Reimu, clearly disappointed, jabs as Yukari giggles, and Losira sits back down next to Reimu on the carpet.

"I stayed during my pregnancy in Gensokyou until it was time for her birth. I did not want her to live in the disruptive world of Gensokyou at the time, so I decided to give birth in the outside world and sent Lafcadio a notice foretelling the birth. I gave Maribel to Lafcadio to take care of as his child as I returned to Gensokyou again. I later visited Merry when she was a child, but I have not seen her since."

"She also met me, too, when she came to visit," Renko adds.

"So in other words, that makes Maribel half-youkai, half-human, right? How's that work?" Losira points out.

"Okazaki-sensei analyzed my DNA structure and innate magic ability and has determined that I have the normal lifespan of a human but the augmented magic talent of Okaa-san's power," Maribel clarifies. "Though, admittedly, even though my power has been sharply accentuated by the Beta Block's influence, it is nowhere near Okaa-san's ability."

"You will get there soon enough, my dear," Yukari assures.

"Just curious, what happened ta Mr. Hearn?" Losira asks nonchalantly.

Yukari gives a sad smile. "Unfortunately, he passed away shortly after Merry's birth due to heart failure. He was aware of his condition, however, so he arranged for one of his colleagues' family, the Koizumi family, to adopt her in the case that he did die."

"I see. Sorry to hear that," Losira nods understandingly as Maribel also gives a sad smile, much like her mother. "At least you still have your mom with you, so make sure ta make the most outta yer time with her, mkay?"

"E-Eh? Losira-san, your parents...are they...?" Maribel begins, but Losira cuts her off like it is her job.

"They're both dead, yeah."

"Hey, so are mine, y'know," Reimu interjects. "Don't be forgetting 'bout me, here."

Losira turns to her sharply, gawking at Reimu. "Oi, oi oi, you never told me that!"

"I didn't? Oh, I thought I did..."

Losira scratches her head uncomfortably. "I guess we all have something in common...tch, the worst thing to ever have in common, for fuck's sake..."

"What about you, Renko?" Yukari asks, trying to dispel some of the conversational awkwardness in the air. "Are your parents still well?"

"Huh? Mine? Yeah, Okaa-san and Otou-san are fine," Renko says, not really paying attention to the conversation being too preoccupied with flipping through her chained book. "Though, I haven't really talked to them ever since I entered university."

Renko looks up from her book into three cold stares from Losira, Reimu, and Maribel. "Er...did I...say something bad...?"

"Nope, nothin' at all, jus' go back ter readin' that book 'a yours," Losira snaps. "Lucky bitch."

"H-H-Hey, it's not my fault I still have my parents!" Renko cries as even Maribel turns away from her best friend and hugs her youkai mother tightly. "Stop trying to ostracize me for something I didn't do!"

"There, there..." Yukari chuckles again as she strokes Maribel's hair.

"Sigh...it's late, I'ma take this tray back," Losira says, noticing the time on the clock hanging just below the M4A1 CCO on its rack. "Reimu, what's gonna happen with us goin' to Gensokyou or whatever?"

"Oh, that's right, I completely forgot, dang it!" Reimu grimaces as she smacks her own forehead with her palm. "Yukari, what do you wanna do? You still wanna go back, or wait until morning?"

"Hmm...the problem is that even if we were to go back now, I do not think I can open the portal forcefully," Yukari says, concerned. "I would like to wait at least twenty-four hours before opening it again."

"Okaa-san, could I not try?" Maribel asks. "I could probably open it, as I have done before."

"Oh, that's right, Merry can try!" Yukari claps her hands together, apparently forgetting all about her own daughter's capabilities. "But are you sure, Merry?"

"I'll try not to disappoint, ehehe~" Maribel scratches her cheek, unsure of her own projected outcome.

"Nah, I think it's better ta jus' spend the night here and then go," Losira firmly states, standing up with the nearly empty tray. "But what're we gonna do with Renko 'n Maribel?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm worried about, Merry," Renko repeats. "Is it alright for us to go too? We've spent so much time trying to go over to Gensokyou to try to prove that there is indeed a parallel world to Earth, but we've never really been able to consciously go there, save for Merry's subconscious phasings."

"Oh God...more people who'll eat up my snacks and tea..." Reimu groans, and Losira's sharp voice rings out from the kitchen.

"Oi, shut the fuck up, you've been moochin' off _my_ goddamn snacks 'n tea, aren'tcha?!" Reimu puts on a guilty look and chuckles awkwardly.

"I wish to spend more time with my daughter, so I would like to take them with us to Gensokyou. It will be a learning experience for everyone, after all," Yukari affirms. "Though, it will only be for a day, for our work here in the outside world is far more important."

"Then it's settled," Losira says, walking back into the living room but remaining standing. "Let's snooze here and get up in the morning and hop on over to the other side and do what we need ta do. Neither of you mind, right?" Losira points at both Maribel and Renko, both of whom shake their heads. "Alrighty, then, now I've gotta decide who's gonna sleep where and who gets to use the showers first..."

"Ah, me, I call first on the bathtub with Renko!" Maribel raises her hand enthusiastically, again much to Renko's chagrin.

"Oi, what the heck, Merry, did you just say you're going to take a bath _with_ me?!"

Maribel looks at Renko with puppy-dog eyes. "But...that is how we have always taken baths, has it not? Together?"

"YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SAY THOSE KINDS OF THINGS OUT LOUD, YOU IDIOT! ! ! ! !" Renko throws a couch pillow at Maribel, extremely red in the face amidst Maribel's squeals. Losira simply sighs as shenanigans among her house guests ensue, but a short vibration in her skirt pocket hums for attention, and she pulls out her smartphone and taps it on. There, she sees a recent text message and opens it up to read.

_Have Renko Usami and Maribel Hearn contact Yumemi Okazaki immediately. We shall coordinate another collaboration with her and her group. Details to follow. Lauren out._


End file.
